Providing Safe, Holistic, Individualised Nursing Care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Patient

Learn about the provision of safe, holistic, individualized nursing care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. Gain knowledge on how to provide culturally safe care in practice and improve health outcomes for Indigenous Australians.

PROVIDING SAFE, HOLISTIC, INDIVIDUALISED NURSING CARE TO ABORIGINAL
AND TORRES STRAIT ISLANDER PATIENT
Name of Student
Institution Affiliation

Description
Leaning about the provision of safe, holistic, individualized nursing care to Aboriginal
and Torres Strait Islanders was one of the topics that attracted my attention in this unit.
Interacting with course materials and doing personal research gave me a chance to learn more
about what provision of safe care to the Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders entails.
Consultations inside and outside the class also provided an opportunity to gain more knowledge
on the topic. I attended class lectures, carried out personal research and consulted my colleagues
because of the particular desire that I have in providing culturally safe care in my practice. The
outcome was that id gained much more knowledge than I anticipated. I had to make a summary
of key points to make the topic more understandable; However, I did not do much reviewing of
the external sources used to review their authenticity. I had to cancel personal plans to attend all
the lectures and carry out relevant research on the topic. The topic has left me more aware of the
issues that I should focus on during my practice to improve the outcome for the Indigenous
Australians. Focusing on the provision of culturally safe care has improved the health status of
the improved access to healthcare services for the Indigenous Australians (Taylor & Guerin,
2010).
Feelings
Leaning about this topic came with mixed feelings. At first, I did not attach so much
significance to this topic as the main contributor towards optimum care outcomes for the
Indigenous Australians. I was actually happy to learn that I can play a role in improving the
health outcomes of Indigenous Australians by providing culturally safe care in my practice. I,
however, sympathized with the current health state of the group based on the challenges that they
face in accessing culturally safe care. I was not happy by the fact that the current health quality

and safety standards for the Aboriginals and Torres standards are insufficient (Laverty,
McDermott & Calma, 2017). This has therefore made it difficult to ensure culturally safe care for
the Indigenous Australian Patients. It broke my heart to understand that these challenges have
continues to hinder the realization of optimum care outcomes for the Indigenous Australians.
Critical evaluation
The things that worked well for this topic was that it was quite easy to understand
pertinent issues behind the inequality in care outcomes between indigenous Australians and non-
indigenous Australians. Getting relevant materials outside class work was also quite easy.
However, Learning about this topic left me greatly challenged. I Wished I were in a position of
improving the health outcomes for the Indigenous Australians across the board, by enhancing
culturally safe practice. It was disappointing to learn that a country, with one of the best
healthcare systems in the world, would be dealing with issues of inequality in healthcare
(Freeman et al., 2016). I always react in the same way whenever I am disappointed. For sure,
some of the issues I leant about the challenges faced by Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal
people were quite disappointing. I was able to know all these issue trough attendances of all
lectures, being attentive during lecture hours and diligently engaging in personal research. Partly,
my reaction was due to a limited understanding before undertaking this unit.
Analysis and conclusion
I have learnt the importance of the provision of safe, holistic individualized nursing care
can play a major role in improving health outcomes for Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islander
people. My understanding of this important aspect was initially limited. I have also known how
influential provision of culturally safe care has become in the development of better health
outcomes for Indigenous Australians. Leaning about the historical challenges faced by the

Indigenous Australians had made me understand why more needs to be done to achieve equality.
For example, learning about the disease prevalence among the population and insufficient
funding or funding of only specific diseases has changed my perception that over-spending on
the population is wastage of taxpayer’s money (Lafontaine,2018) This knowledge will make me
more conscious in my provision of culturally safe care.
Action Plan
I will implement culturally safe practice by first reflecting on my own culture, beliefs,
and attitudes towards the Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal people. I will also seek to
develop trust with the patients with respectful, open, value-free and clear communication.
Finally, recognizing and shunning stereotypical barriers will help me provide culturally safe care
for the group

References
Freeman, T., Baum, F., Lawless, A., Javanparast, S., Jolley, G., Labonté, R., ... & Sanders, D.
(2016). Revisiting the ability of Australian primary healthcare services to respond to health
inequity. Australian Journal of Primary Health, 22(4), 332-338.
Lafontaine, A. (2018). Indigenous health disparities: a challenge and an opportunity. Canadian
Journal of Surgery, 61(5), 300.
Laverty, M., McDermott, D. R., & Calma, T. (2017). Embedding cultural safety in Australia’s
main health care standards. The Medical journal of Australia, 207(1), 15-16.
Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. (2010). Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in
practice. Macmillan Education AU.