Frontline nurse Loveness Tsitsi Mauwa is a Zimbabwe native. She has spent the past twenty years working in the healthcare sector in New South Wales, Australia. Her personal journey has been shadowed by acts of racism and discrimination, forcing her out of full-time nursing positions. Her story helps draw attention to a growing threat to the nursing workforce. Finally, it exposes the challenges that culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) workers face.
Mauwa immediately started her nursing career upon landing in Australia on a skilled migrant visa. Upon starting her first job at a local hospital, she was informed by a colleague that there existed a template for success within the institution. This template, she found, was biased towards younger, White and conventionally attractive people.
“She told me to progress, you have to be young, Caucasian and beautiful,” – Loveness Tsitsi Mauwa
Mauwa had applied for positions, fellowships, and other opportunities to take her career to the next level, but always got cut at the last round—never making it through. She feels these obstacles are still in the way of many CALD workers looking to advance within their fields.
Racism as described by Mauwa is not an isolated experience. In early June, a report by the NSWNMA released a survey of over 3,000 union members. These results show that 64 percent of them encountered blatant racism from staff or patients. Alarmingly, two-thirds of nurses and midwives from CALD backgrounds in New South Wales have encountered similar discrimination in their workplace.
Mauwa claims that racism isn’t just harmful to individuals, it is corroding health outcomes of patients at large. Without these actions, she warns, these barriers must be removed in order to create a more inclusive workplace for all or risk losing all healthcare professionals.
“Racism is making people sick. Racism is stopping people who are sick from getting better, and racism is making people who are sick get worse,” – Giridharan Sivaraman
Since Mauwa started her career in Australia in the early 2000s, the lack of diversity in the workforce has become an undeniable reality. The troubles haven’t stopped there. Advocates underscore the need for collaborative efforts to tackle this multifaceted challenge.
Ryan Park, a spokesperson for health equity, stated, “When people don’t feel safe, they don’t feel culturally safe within our settings, then the health outcomes are also worse.” This sentiment reflects the urgent need for systemic changes within healthcare institutions to ensure safety and equity for all staff members.
Recognizing these findings, there are ongoing collaborative efforts to finding common ground and bring stakeholders together. Shaye Candish highlighted the role of the Human Rights Commission in leading discussions among government entities, employers, unions, and advocacy groups to tackle racism in healthcare.
“It will be chaired by the Human Rights Commission, and we will have participants from governments, from employers, from the union, from the advocacy groups, from all stakeholders involved in this collaborative,” – Shaye Candish
Candish highlighted the challenge of confronting racism as a force in clinical spaces. The reality though, unfortunately, is that racism is a really insidious evil, and it’s a really convoluted and complicated issue. It’s going to take a massive effort and dedication on the part of institutions,” she said.
Mauwa’s story highlights a growing nightmare that we need to address, the dark side of this pandemic. She thinks the healthcare system is okay with CALD workers existing in these entry-level roles. She believes it shortchanges their progression into management positions.
“I think the health system is happy if we (are) just working on the floor, but not wanting to progress into management or senior roles,” – Loveness Tsitsi Mauwa
