Incorporating Indigenous Knowledge in Nursing Curricula: Recommendation for Change

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It is evident that now more than ever change is needed in nursing curricula to incorporate mandatory aboriginal health studies. Aboriginal persons of Canada continue to experience significant health disparities linked to social, historical, and contextual factors. The Canadian Association of Nurses (CNA) and the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada (ANAC) recognizes the need to address barriers associated to aboriginal health nursing and aboriginal health (CNA, 2014). I believe that student nurses should have the opportunity in nursing school to develop the knowledge required to provide culturally appropriate care. 

WHAT’S IN IT FOR US?

Providing culturally appropriate care can also benefit patients, health care providers, and health care systems. For instance, it has been reported that patients respond better when culture is considered in care and health care providers who learn cultural competence have increased confidence in their job and ability to address needs of diverse populations, higher job satisfaction is linked to increased employee retention rates in health care organizations (National aboriginal health organization, 2008) So, what can schools of nursing do to ensure students are developing culturally appropriate care in practice? I recommend that nursing schools incorporate mandatory aboriginal studies that place an emphasis on integrating Indigenous knowledge and ways of being. 

Indigenous knowledge in nursing is defined as “traditional knowledge, oral knowledge, and indigenous knowledge along with literate knowledge. It also includes understanding First Nations, Inuit and Métis ontology, epistemology and explanatory models related to health and healing; and First Nations, Inuit and Métis cosmologies” (Minore et al. 2013, p. 7). Incorporating indigenous knowledge into curricula has the potential to enrich the relational aspect of nursing (CNA, 2014), student nurses can also learn to respect differences among traditional healing practices compared with current biomedical perspectives . We hope that by implementing indigenous knowledge into mandatory curricula we can begin to close the gap on barriers within schools and workplaces that fail to respect and employ indigenous knowledge currently.  

By: Rochelle Iyer

References

The Canadian Encyclopedia (2018) Retrieved from: https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/smudging

CNA. (2014, July). Aboriginal health nursing and Aboriginal health: Charting policy direction for nursing in Canada.Canadian Nurses Association, Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada. Retrieved from: https://www.cna-aiic.ca/~/media/cna/page-content/pdf-en/aboriginal-health-nursing-and-aboriginal-health_charting-policy-direction-for-nursing-in-canada.pdf?la=en

Minore, B., Boone, M., Cromarty, H., Hill, M. E., Katt, M., Kinch, P., . . . Sabourin, A. (2013). Developing supportive workplace and educational environments for aboriginal nurses. Thunder Bay, ON: Centre for Rural and Northern Health Research, Lakehead University. 

National Aboriginal Health Organization. (2008). Cultural competency and safety: A guide for health administrators, providers, and educators. Ottawa ON: author