Background: Racism contributes to inequities faced by people of colour and minority groups.1,2 While there is widespread recognition of this, programmes to combat it have not made much impact.2,3 Research in racism in healthcare has concentrated on personal experiences of healthcare workers and patients,3,4 assuming that racism and the concept of race are similarly understood by all. However, ethnicity and race are often conflated and racism seen as primarily interpersonal and ahistorical.
Purpose: To explore healthcare workers perceptions of racism, its impact and reduction to aid development of anti-racist strategies.
Methods: Forty-nine staff within one Australian hospital participated in individual qualitative interviews regarding the definition, impact, and ways of reducing racism. Interviews were analysed with a reflexive thematic analytic approach using a Postcolonial framework.
Results: There was unanimous agreement that racism was experienced by minority groups, people of colour and Aboriginal peoples in Australia with a detrimental effect on health and wellbeing. There was uncertainty for some as to what constituted ‘actual racism’-it was commonly thought of as individual prejudice though structural racism was also noted. Participants commonly defined race as involving physical or cultural differences, suggesting that discredited historical and colonial concepts of race continue in Australian society.
Racism was not described as an ideology created to justify colonial distribution of power and resources. While many felt that education was the best way to reduce racism and its impact, it was noted that being educated did not necessarily change racist behaviour.
Conclusions: There appears to be inaccurate understanding of the concept of race and racism which could contribute to poor effect of strategies to combat racism to date. This research supports calls for clarity in defining the history and purpose of racism and thereby work towards eliminating racialised health inequity.