Nurse appointed as EDI Lead at CRN South London
Chifundo Stubbs, a Senior Research Nurse who works at the NIHR-Wellcome King's Clinical Research Facility (CRF), has been recently appointed as Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Lead at NIHR Clinical Research Network (CRN) South London.
Chifundo qualified as a registered nurse in 2011. Her first role was on one of the King’s College Hospital haemato-oncology transplant wards, working as part of a multidisciplinary team looking after patients at various stages of their transplant journey. However, the role the palliative care team played always stood out to Chifundo. She said:
“In 2016, the post of a palliative research nurse became available just when I was ready for a new challenge. That is how my career in research started. I also got involved with the CRN for the first time. My job was to recruit patients into various longitudinal studies.
“One of the studies was this amazing longitudinal interventional study. It struck me that the patients we were recruiting did not represent the community we served. In fact, I do not believe we recruited any black participants into the study, although I do remember recruiting a few South Asians. We were providing an amazing intervention, why was it that people from some backgrounds were not interested?
“After this first experience of inequality in research, it became clear to me that there was a lot of work to be done to make research more representative. After talking to a few colleagues, I joined the department’s public and patient involvement (PPI) forum to represent the Black and nursing voice. At around the same time, King’s College Hospital launched the Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) network, and I became part of its outreach team, using it as an opportunity to learn about other cultures but also as a tool to speak to more people about the various clinical research projects running in the trust.”
In 2021, Chifundo became the Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) Lead at the NIHR-Wellcome King's Clinical Research Facility (CRF). She continued:
“One of the unique advantages of CRF’s PPI groups is that we work with various research specialists who use the facility. As part of our EDI strategy, we have incorporated key events of the equality and diversity calendar into our yearly activities as a way of promoting EDI among researchers and participants.
“My EDI journey started with race and the lack of ethnic diversity in research both among researchers and participants. However, between 2016 and now, I have seen first hand other groups that are not well represented, such as people with physical disabilities, rare diseases, low incomes and limited knowledge of the research process.
“It is important that research reflects the community in which the results of that research are going to be applied. For example, in a clinical trial and development of a drug, the more diverse the participants of the trials, the more likely it is going to capture data about its efficacy in the diverse population likely to use the drug once it is approved.
“It is just as important that there’s equality and diversity in the people who deliver research. We need people from all walks of life getting involved in the delivery of research to ensure it is truly representative of the communities we serve.
“One of the most humbling and enriching experiences I had last year was working with a deaf student nurse. She was able to share with me and the rest of the CRF team how to communicate better with deaf people and I cannot wait for the opportunity to use these new skills on participants from the deaf community in the near future.”
Chifundo sees her main EDI Lead role as promoting diversity, by carrying out research into best practice in order to bring the knowledge that has been amassed in this field together and make it more accessible. She also believes her role is to provide support and guidance to researchers to ensure that their projects reflect the community and that EDI is embedded into their research practice. Chifundo said:
“People usually say meeting EDI goals is hard, and to be fair it’s true based on my own experience. People don’t always trust the system or they feel like their voice will not change anything. If EDI is to be embedded in research, it is going to require time and commitment and it will be a slow process. But it can be done. We are in a better place today than we were when I first started in research in 2016 and I’m quite excited because the NIHR and other sponsors have set up more comprehensive guidelines of EDI requirements for funding.”
The CRN South London recently hosted a regional EDI Symposium event, which was co-chaired by Chifundo. More information about promoting equality, diversity and inclusion in research is available on the NIHR’s website.
