A team of researchers from Kings College London have used virtual reality scenarios (VR) to help NHS employees understand the impact of discrimination on their colleagues.

Despite being the largest employer of ethnic minority staff in the UK, staff from BAME backgrounds experience greater levels of workplace harassment and discrimination than their white peers and are more at-risk to the more harmful side-effects COVID-19.

The innovation, led by Professor Stephani Hatch, uses VR as a powerful storytelling medium that lets managers walk in the shoes of black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) staff in the NHS workforce. ‘Walking in the Shoes of…’ will form a key part of immersive training for staff, managers, and policymakers from all ethnic backgrounds. It aims to tackle racism and discrimination experienced by ethnic minoritized staff in occupational roles in an engaging, empathetic, and experiential way.

The King’s team will be piloting these scenarios with Maudsley Learning, which has been awarded £90,000 as part of the Knowledge Assets Grant Fund to improve access to VR training for healthcare staff.

Professor Stephani Hatch who is a Professor of Sociology and Epidemiology at the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, and the Principal Investigator on the project at King’s College London comments: “The NHS workforce is currently more diverse than at any point in its history. Adversities place racial and ethnic minority staff in vulnerable positions as they work in roles that involve greater exposure to coronavirus; and have greater workplace stresses, stigma, fear, and uncertainty around COVID-19 risks for themselves and their families. We need staff from racial and ethnic minority groups to speak out about how inequalities are being produced in the context of the pandemic and, if they continue, once things begin returning to normal. Importantly, we want to work with these staff to amplify their voices and try to mitigate current and future impacts by developing effective and evidence-based approaches that are based on an in-depth understanding of real-life experiences.”

The work by the team at Kings College London forms part of a £550 million COVID-19 rapid investment programme by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) – the largest public funder of research and development in the UK. The diversity of UKRI-funded projects is vast – from the world’s first COVID-19 treatments and vaccines to projects that help us understand and mitigate the impact of the pandemic on our economy, environment, education, arts sector, and mental health. This funding builds on decades of public investment and research expertise which have provided the backbone to our national COVID-19 response.