Study: Health workers must develop better connections with ethnic minorities

Health professionals should learn how to develop better connections with patients to improve the care of those who belong to ethnic minority groups, a study has recommended.

Researchers from the University of Westminster, Oxford University, Queen Mary University of London, King’s College London and the University of Portsmouth analysed the social and cultural factors that influenced the experience of ethnic minority patients undergoing psychological or cancer treatment.

They found that understanding and reacting to patients with warmth and positivity, and interacting with them in the way a family member or friend would, could have a transformative impact on their care.

Patients described feeling connected and the use of warm language as instrumental in developing a successful relationship with a health professional, such as an occupational health practitioner.

One patient said that they valued health professionals “who will listen to us, who will allow us to talk”.

Professor Damien Ridge, lead researcher from the University of Westminster, said: “Essentially, we found that it is the common human things that connect us and that are important to us, which have been overlooked in the care for ethnic minority patients, and which, if better understood by professionals, could help to improve care.

“Positively, our findings suggest that practitioners can be trained to draw upon their own emotional lives, to improve connections with their patients who feel disengaged.”

Dr Dipesh Gopal from Queen Mary University of London said: “Healthcare that fails to appreciate the centrality of creating safety and connectedness in care consultations for all kinds of patients risks inadvertently ‘othering’ patients.”

Professor Trudie Chalder from King’s College London added: “Patients, irrespective of background, desire to feel connected to their healthcare professionals. But discrimination adds another layer of complexity where patients from ethnic minorities can end up feeling less cared for than their white counterparts.”

The research, which was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) and published in the PLOS ONE journal, looked at data from 29 studies.

Recent studies have found that workers in ethnic minority groups are more likely than their white counterparts to experience certain health complications. The University of Manchester found ethnic minorities experienced higher rates of severe illness and death during the Covid-19 pandemic, while the Centre for Mental Health last year urged the government to do more to address poor mental health among young black men.