Advances in Contemporary Indigenous Health Care (2nd edn)
Special Issue of Contemporary Nurse
Volume 37 Issue 1 December 2010
108 pages ISBN ISBN 978-1-921348-89-1
Guest edited by:
Kim Usher
James Cook University
and
Rhonda Marriott
Murdoch University
This Special Issue is focused on closing the gap In Indigenous health outcomes. The gap represents the accumulated, appalling statistics that compares the state of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' health and life expectancy to the health and longevity of all other Australians. Close the Gap is a concerted and directed campaign with many signatories including Government, organisations and agencies to reduce the level of disadvantage among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Council of Australian Governments (COAG) and Close the Gap identified key areas that require immediate funding and action - health, healthy homes, education, early childhood, safe communities, economic participation and governance and leadership.
Early deaths of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is known to be the long-term result of policies of removal of children, removal from land and culture, and loss of language and lore. In addition, there are chronic illness, including diabetes, cardiac and lung diseases (due in no small part to changes in lifestyle); poor nutrition and poor access to high quality food; poor mental health, alcohol and substance abuse and increased rates of incarceration and suicide.
While nurses and midwives have made some advances towards closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health as described in the articles included in this special edition, there are significant steps nurses and midwives must yet take in order to start to make a real contribution to closing the gap. Some of those steps are personal while others are the responsibility of the nursing and midwifery professions.
Rather than continue to be overwhelmed by these statistics, it is time for nurses and midwives to begin to make a difference by thinking of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as people who belong to a family and a community; as real people with real lives and not just a statistic.
Professionally, closing the gap hinges on education as a way of changing professional behaviours and attitudes to ensure nurses and midwives are aware of the disadvantage faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander peoples and work in a culturally safe and respectful manner. Nurses and midwives who have recently undertaken their education are likely to be familiar with the gap - these statistics are commonly incorporated into undergraduate curricula. Those who were educated in nursing or midwifery more than ten years ago are unlikely to have encountered these statistics in their undergraduate courses, or in their training. In the future, nursing and midwifery undergraduate education will consistently and reliably encompass Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, history and culture. Courses will have Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health, history and culture as a fundamental requirement for accreditation of each and every nursing or midwifery course across Australia. A modern nursing and midwifery workforce must understand the concepts of - and the importance of working within - a culturally safe and respectful health system. Nurses and midwives must be professionally and academically prepared and required to provide care in a manner that will not further harm Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Importantly, this is now a specific aim of nursing and midwifery education.
The importance of closing the gap is not merely to improve the statistics. Closing the gap can only be achieved through active, sustained and inclusive professional thinking and deeds. This Special Issue aims to contribute to this.
Related special issue from Contemporary Nurse
“Advances in Contemporary Indigenous Health Care (1st edn)”
Editors:
Eileen Willis Faculty of Health Sciences, Flinders University
Victoria Smye University of British Columbia, Canada
Maria Rameka Auckland University of Technology, New Zealand
This special issue focuses on building Indigenous health capacity through examining the roles of current communi...Visit Website
Related special issue from Contemporary Nurse
“Advances in Contemporary Transcultural Nursing (1st edn)”
Editors:
John Daly University of Technology Sydney, NSW
Debra Jackson University of Western Sydney, NSW
What a joy it is to see this occur during this heightened era of transcultural nursing worldwide...in a country that is truly multicultural....with professional nurses to care for the different...Visit Website
eContent Home
