Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing

CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 1
Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
University
Author
31 October 2022
Professor’s name
Program of Study

CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 2
Contemporary Indigenous Health and Wellbeing
Introduction
Aboriginal and Torres Strait people have been facing inequalities in regards to their
health and wellbeing. Culturally inappropriate nature is one of the leading contributors to
such inequalities. Especially acquiring mainstream health services, thus discouraging them
from accessing quality healthcare (Mesman, van IJzendoorn, and Sagi-Schwarz, 2016).
Additionally, economic opportunities, social conditions as well as physical infrastructures are
other documented features related to the disadvantages experienced by Aboriginal and Torres
Strait people. During the phases of my education practices and undertakings, Gibb’s cycle
has encouraged me to contemplate.
Further, to review as well as analyse systematically on all the positive areas in my
nursing profession. Also, to check those that require improvement. This reflective practice
does not only focus on my study. In the different learning activities in class, they showed a
proper reflection of my previous assessment on the Reflection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander culture. My activities in class made me reflect on the values and beliefs concerning
the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders in Australia. They face discrimination which also
happens within the healthcare systems. I believe it is necessary to address and rectify these
challenges by describing and analyzing any underlying reasons. Therefore, this reflective
essay aims at utilizing the Gibbs model of reflection. Also, when it comes to the experiences
of professional nurses and other healthcare providers, an encounter with Aboriginal and
Torres Strait patients.
Reflection
Reflective practice lessons I learned during my classroom discussions and personal
research were informative. They prepared me to face the uncertainties found at the workplace

CONTEMPORARY INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELLBEING 3
(Fejzic et al., 2016). The lessons also assisted in gaining the courage to do my nursing
practice ethically as well as competently amid chaos found in most international healthcare
systems.
It is indeed a fact that I was curious about the aboriginal and Torres strait especially
their cultural practices, their values, beliefs, various languages, their Australian background
as well as their community as a whole. During my research, I got intrigued by the
preconceived myth when it comes to violence and discrimination, especially in children and
women. It was evident that both sexual and physical assaults against aboriginal and Torres
Strait women and children were not part of their cultural practices as a tradition. To my
realisation during my interactions with a few members of different communities, cases of
sexual and physical assaults against non-Aboriginal children are higher compared to
Aboriginal children and Torres Strait. I believe my first steps towards gaining new insights
into the nursing practice as well as creating awareness when it comes to reacting to practice
reaction were initiated by the reflective practices. Therefore, through my broad ranges of
factors and aspects, I aspire to make changes as I simultaneously learn the concerns affecting
the Aboriginal and Torres Islanders culture as well as the different challenges encountered by
professional nurses during their course of duty.
Based on factors such as agreements and misunderstandings, I was initially putting
more emphasis on the different ways of tackling tasks using the Gibbs model as I
simultaneously arrive at a reasonable conclusion. Which means, expressing one’s feelings, as
well as analyzing different processes in regards to the development of appropriate actions are
part of my preconceived ideas. Additionally, the most important aspect was beliefs when it
comes to conducting an effective reflective analysis which was one of the ways professional
nurses could start in planning their actions.