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'It's not easy'
Caring for Aboriginal clients with diabetes in remote Australia
Michelle Cribbes
Remote Area Nurse, WA
Karen Glaister
Course Coordinator, Postgraduate Diabetes Programs, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Curtin University of Technology, Perth WA
Abstract
This paper presents a personal perspective of caring for clients with diabetes on a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory. The state of Aboriginal health in Australia is explored and consideration given to Government recommendations targeting the improvement of health in the Indigenous population.
For the remote area nurse at the grass roots, the application of these recommendations is not always easy. The recommendations can be both impractical and irrelevant in remote areas where resources are often less than ideal. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the dilemmas faced by health care professionals as they endeavour to make a real change to the alarming health status of the Indigenous people of Australia.
Keywords
remote area nurse, Aboriginal health, diabetes, Indigenous health, primary care, nursing
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