Pride Month | Aston advocates for LGBTQIA+ patients in healthcare

Aston Nicholls is graduating in July from University of South Wales (USW) with a degree in Adult Nursing. While studying at USW, he encouraged academics to integrate more inclusivity within healthcare courses.

Being a nurse wasn’t Aston’s number one career choice. He had successful jobs in retail management then medical recruitment but, aged 28, decided he wanted more. He wanted a profession. Having not studied for a decade, he decided to do a foundation healthcare course in the evenings.

He said: “I worked closely with nurses (amongst other healthcare professionals) in my day job, and one day it occurred to me that I may be good at nursing. My experience in retail and recruitment was based around helping people, but I wanted to help people in a different way.”

Working full-time and studying was intense but Aston passed the foundation course, stepped away from working full time, and started the degree at USW.

“I felt out of my depth in the beginning, I wondered ‘why the hell am I putting myself through this?’ Nursing is different to most degrees. When you aren’t at university, you are on placement. But when you are on placement, the assignments still need completing. Good time management is key. I am not work-shy at all, but studying nursing is the most challenging thing I have ever done, though also the most rewarding.

I had worked full-time since I left school so there was a big drop in income when I began studying. For additional income, I worked nurse bank shifts and also became a USW Student Ambassador. I worked at Open Days and helped to recruit more nursing students. I was also elected as the Cohort Representative and subsequently as Chair of the Staff Student Course Liaison Group (SSCLG), so I worked closely with both staff and students. I really felt a part of the USW family.”

Having this close working relationship with his lecturers, Aston asked to have a discussion about something close to his heart - LGBTQIA+ representation in healthcare training.

“I remember several lectures where I felt there was a lack of inclusion. When discussing healthcare, I felt we spoke very generically about patients. I realised as I entered the final year of my course that we weren't taught anything about LGBTQIA+ patients; how to care for them, the challenges that they face, and what we can do as nurses to support them. I could see that we were missing something. Because of my position as Chair of the SSCLG, I felt empowered to raise this with my Course Leaders. I knew that there were LGBTQIA+ student nurses throughout our healthcare programmes. I also knew that will be students who have never met gay, lesbian, trans or non-binary people, and therefore would be ill-equipped to identify and understand their challenges and how to support these people. After raising my concerns and following positive discussions, I was encouraged to create a project around the topic.”

Aston designed a presentation on LGBTQIA+ issues within healthcare practice with the aim to prompt lecturers to make teaching more inclusive, ensuring that that content being delivered is relatable to the audience.

“My presentation was reviewed by academics and colleagues within the LGBTQIA+ network I was a part of. Following positive feedback, I was asked by the Head of School if I would like to turn it into a video to be used as a teaching tool. This has since been created, and the purpose of the video is to give healthcare students a basic understanding of LGBTQIA+ topics and terminology. It is hoped the video will encourage students to talk (and begin to understand) about how this patient demographic can be supported.”

Aston now works as a Sexual Health Nurse, a role which he loves.

He said: “What I love about my job is that everything we see in sexual health is either manageable or treatable. We're able to provide instant help, most of the time. We can treat acute infections. We can manage long-term conditions. We deliver contraception options. We support patients who have been victims of sexual assault. We see under 18s. We conduct health promotion. It’s so varied.

“We have patients from various backgrounds, of different sexualities, with a wide spectrum of presenting issues, and I love that. Sexual health is personal and patients can feel really vulnerable. I enjoy playing my part in empowering them to take ownership of their sexual health. I like being able to facilitate a safe place for people to talk about sensitive topics. And I love it when they walk away, relieved and thinking ‘I am glad I went along; I shouldn’t have been so nervous!’”

Although Aston feels comfortable as a gay nurse in the NHS, he thinks there is still work to be done.

“For me, the NHS in Wales is very much a safe workspace, and I am very, very proud to be an NHS nurse. I know that we've got further to go in terms of developing more specific education around LGBTQIA+ people and topics in the NHS. I don’t feel the current, generic equality & diversity training goes far enough to represent not only LGBTQIA+ people but other minority groups too. Back in 2021, I was involved in re-launching my local health board's LGBTQIA+ committee. We came to understand that people who identify as LGBTQIA+ struggle to access healthcare services because they are discouraged by the lack of inclusion. I absolutely believe that we can all do more to become more inclusive, and this often starts with the smallest of gestures such as using pronouns or affirming your support to the LGBTQIA+ community through use of inclusive language; something we can all do with minimal effort.”