Week 1: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples' Health- An Introduction Flashcards
Why is it important to learn about culturally competent care of an Indigenous Australian within nursing?
It is a professional requirement: under the Australian Nursing & Midwifery Council, every registered nurse must complete a clearly identified unit on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ culture, history and health, engage in a clinical placement with an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health service where possible and demonstrate understanding of cultural safety issues
It is enshrined within the Code of Ethics for Nurses in Australia: nurses must respect the HR of Indigenous people as traditional owners with a distinct and viable culture which shapes their autonomy. Nurses must recognise the process of reconciliation. Nurses must recognise the distinct models of care of Indigenous Australians.
Nurses will be directly involved with the enduring inequality face by Indigenous Australians: significant gaps, particularly in health. Nurses work directly with patients and Indigenous Australian health care workers who face inequality
Most people go into nursing to make a difference, or to care: Indigenous people bear the burden of sickness and grief and require trauma informed models of care.
It is mandated and regulated: NSW Aboriginal Health Plan 2012-2023 principles govern all sectors of health.
Nurses are central contributors: nurses have historically knowingly and unknowingly perpetuated suffering and inequality.
To engage in ethical care and social justice: it is not enough to be culturally aware, nurse need to avoid participating in racist practices. Postcolonising nursing: not engaging with who did what or who suffered what, but participating in culturally safe practices.
To understand and respond: to become more informed and act appropriately.
How does the history of nursing affect the relationship between nurses and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples?
History of nursing is very Eurocentric, does not tell the story of nursing from an Indigenous perspective
Nurses implemented assimilation policies, Stolen Generations
Most communities can tell stories of negative experiences with nurses, which is a barrier to care
What is cultural safety?
▪ The upholding of understanding of one’s own culture, acknowledging and respecting difference, recognising colonisation, racism and power inequalities; and as defined/determined by those receiving healthcare
➢ The effective nursing of a person/family from another culture
➢ By a nurse who has undertaken a process of reflection on her/his own cultural identity
➢ And recognises the impact of the nurse’s cultural identities on his/her own nursing practice
➢ Cultural training cannot make a meaningful contribution to the health of Indigenous Australians while it remains situated within the models that produce the very chasm it attempts to bridge
