The Yapunyah Project: Embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in the nursing curriculum
Robyn Nash
Director of Undergraduate Programs/Assistant Dean, Teaching and Learning, School of Nursing, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane QLD
Beryl Meiklejohn
Indigenous Health Lecturer, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane QLD
Sandy Sacre
Project Manager, QUT Large Teaching and Learning Grant 2004-2005, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane QLD
PP: 296 - 316
Abstract
The Yapunyah Project is an initiative of the Faculty of Health at Queensland University of Technology. It was instigated to further improve the development of cultural competence in health graduates with respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. The project was informed by the cultural competence in healthcare delivery models of Campinha-Bacote (1998a) and Cross, Bazron, Dennis and Isaacs (1989) and by the cultural safety reforms to nursing curricula in New Zealand.
The Yapunyah Project involved extensive consultation and collaboration with Indigenous staff and health experts in the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community. A core curriculum, and associated graduate transcultural competencies, were informed by these discussions and earlier reforms in health curricula by the Committee of Deans of Australian Medical Schools and the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. Although the overall project involved four separate schools within the faculty, this paper details the experience of embedding Indigenous perspectives within the undergraduate nursing curriculum. The experience has been a challenging and positive one, and the reforms have been supported by a sustainable framework.
This paper outlines how one university faculty is endeavouring to educationally prepare nursing students to practice with evidence-based transcultural nursing knowledge based on culture care values, beliefs, and traditional lifeways of Indigenous people of Australia. As such, the project aims to contribute to the improvement and promotion of the health and well-being of Indigenous Australians in culturally and ethnohistorically meaningful ways.
Acknowlegements
The Yapunyah Project was made possible by a Queensland University of Technology (QUT) grant awarded under the Teaching and Learning Development Large Grants Scheme which funded a two-year (2004-2005) initiative entitled 'Incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives within Curricula: An Innovative Strategy by the Faculty of Health.' The authors would like to thank all of the members of the Indigenous community, Indigenous Reference Group, and Project Team, as well as the Faculty of Health staff, and other university staff who worked, advised and assisted on the Yapunyah Project.
Keywords
cultural competence, cultural safety, Indigenous health, Aboriginal health, nursing curriculum, educational preparation
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