#182 Why we must focus on cultural humility not cultural competence with Rekha Vijayshankar 

Rekha Vijayshankar is the Specialist Palliative Care Lead at a large London Trust. She is passionate about planning ahead for racially minoritised and marginalised populations.  In conversation with Reckha, I learn about her research findings and how this can be applied in practice.

How does the healthcare system feel if you are racially minoritised and marginalised? What is the impact of a medical rather than social experience of  death and dying and where does cultural humility fit in healthcare? These are just some of the questions I explore in this fascinating discussion with Rekha Vijayshanka. Rekha is the Specialist Palliative Care Lead at a large London Trust. She is passionate about planning ahead for racially minoritised and marginalised populations.  In conversation with Reckha, I learn about her research findings and how this can be applied in practice.

This episode has been kindly supported by the Living Well Dying Well Trust. The creation, development and content of the episode remains the responsibility of Clare Fuller.

Key messages

• How Rekha’s lived experience as a palliative-care caregiver shaped her work and research.

• Medicalising death can make care feel fragmented, confusing and impersonal.

• Racially minoritised and socioeconomically deprived communities can face mistrust, language barriers and other obstacles to care.

• Advance Care Planning should be flexible, centred on the person and open to changing needs.

• Cultural humility and curiosity can help clinicians build trust and learn from communities.

• Quality of life means more than managing physical symptoms or meeting a preferred-place-of-care target.

• Rekha advocates for community-led support networks and co-produced research.

• Her future work includes community capacity-building and paediatric palliative care.

Resource

• Access Promoting the use of advance care planning in people from minority ethnic backgrounds 

• Read the Nursing Standard Promoting the use of advance care planning in people from minority ethnic backgrounds  

• Find out more about Neighbourhood Networks: building community- based peer support in serious illness and after 

• Access End-of-life care needs cultural humility and social justice
  

Bio

Rekha Vijayshankar 

Queen’s Nurse and Churchill Fellow in Palliative Care. Palliative care lead professional and nurse researcher, with experience of engaging with resource poor racially minoritised and marginalised communities. Practiced Health Visitor who led the 0-19 service during Grenfell fire disaster. Currently working to build an innovative community led model of improving awareness of palliative care systems and care planning in areas of high deprivation. The project called the Neighbourhood Networks in Palliative Care was runner up for Marie Curie Tammy Prescott award for Public Participation research, 2026.

Quality Trustee to a CQC rated “outstanding” hospice. Honorary Nurse Consultant to Golden Butterfly (paediatric palliative care charity, India) and Visiting Associate at UCL, Visiting Fellow, Open University.

I hold Masters in Palliative Science from King’s College, London, with a Distinction, nursing mentor and assessor, in addition to Masters qualifications in business management (MBA) and Economics. Systems thinker, values driven reflective practitioner.