Improving Indigenous Healthcare: Cultural Competence and Engagement

This essay examines the critical role of cultural respect in delivering high-quality healthcare to indigenous communities in Australia. It highlights the necessity for registered nurses to develop cultural competence, embrace cultural awareness, and engage in person-centered care to build trust and improve health outcomes. The essay emphasizes the importance of understanding the cultural beliefs and values of indigenous patients, involving them in treatment decisions, and educating them about healthcare practices. Furthermore, it includes a sample template for documenting Continuing Professional Development (CPD) activities, demonstrating a commitment to ongoing learning and improvement in nursing practice. The essay concludes by advocating for empowered individuals within indigenous communities to promote broader understanding and responsibility towards healthcare, ultimately enhancing nursing practices across diverse cultures. Desklib provides a platform to access similar solved assignments.

INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES HEALTHCARE IN AUSTRALIA
By ()
Name of the class
Professor
Name of the school
Name of the city where it is located
date

Respect
For high-quality healthcare, cultural respect is essential to decrease the disparities in health care and improve the health services to respond to patient's needs. A
registered nurse should be culturally competent to deal with the patient from the marginalised communities. The patient should feel understood and appreciated
to seek medical care in case of a health problem. (Hunt, 2013). A competent nurse must embrace cultural awareness, explore cultural knowledge and skills and
develop the desire to learn more through interaction
Discriminating people because of their culture lead to poor health services. Marginalized communities that value their culture will prefer to keep away from
healthcare centres if they are not respected. According to (Clifford et al, 2015), a good nurse should understand the roles of different groups among the
marginalised communities. In some cities, it is the men who make all decision, and this must be respected. The patient should develop some trust with the
health care institution if only the nurses are free to explain the treatment jargon so that the patients can make informed decisions (Clifford, McCalman,
Bainbridge, and Tsey 2015).
Engagement and sharing
Person-centred care is the most effective way to offer health care services. It is built around the interpersonal relationship to understand the culture and beliefs
of the patient. The approach is useful in building trust due to the respect developed as a result of the excellent relationship with the nurses. Person-centred care
is much concerned with who we are our religions, values and cultural beliefs and helps understand the differences and similarities that exist among different
communities which is vital in offering quality healthcare. (Feinberg, 2014) holds that a nurse should also understand the alternative approaches to treatment,
especially among the indigenous people. The move helps to avoid the possibility of side effects if the traditional medicine reacts to the modern medicine.

Moving forward.
For the person-centred care to be adequate, the patient should take part in deciding the kind of treatment undertake and how. As a registered nurse, I will
explain all the possible remedy to the patient and guide them in choosing the best treatment based on their condition. The discussion will be private and
confidential between the nurse and the patient
Typically, it is very hard in dealing with the patient from indigenous communities who hold tightly to their culture even when it is affecting their health. As a
nurse, I will take all my time to understand my client and educate them on the need for good healthcare. (O'Dwyer, C., 2013) believes that If one individual is
empowered health-wise, the impact will spread to more people, therefore, making almost the whole community understand their responsibilities.
Nursing is one of the few careers where you interact with people of all kinds. A nurse should be ready to learn how to handle the patients from indigenous
communities every day. They should develop the desire to learn as many indigenous cultures as possible which will help in perfecting your interactive skills
and also improving your nursing practising with people across all cultures.

Appendix1–SampletemplatefordocumentingCPD
Date Source
or
provider
details
Identifiedl
earningneed
s
Action plan Type of activity Description of
topic(s)covered
during activity and
outcome
Reflection on
activity and
specification to
practice
No./
Title/
Descripti
on of
evidence
CPD
hours
18/2/18 NMBA
The
competency s
tandard of a
registered
nurse
Understand my
responsibility in a
team and give my
best to it.
Plan: review d
ecision making
framework
especially when
working as a
team
Review the procedure of
making decision as well
as focus on self-directed
learning based on the
NMBA guidelines.
Nursing-and-Midwifery-
Board---Guidelines---
Continuing-professional-
development---1-February-
2016.PDF
Reviewed my domain
of practice and the sc
ope of practice for m
y profession. Underst
ood what I needed to
consider before
making the decision
and the best way to
delegate duties to
other nurses
The activity provided
me with a good
understanding of
how a team lead
should make decision
and manage to relate
well with others.
NMBA
guidelin
es
2 hours
24/2/18 Hospital
healthcare
policy
Policy that
governs the
healthcare
workers in a
hospital.
Understand the
policy governing
the healthcare
workers relation
and how the
patients should
be dealt with
Review the policy
document of the hospital
on patient and
interpersonal relations
among the healthcare
workers.
Read the policy of
the document of the
hospital carefully
to understand what
am required to do.
The activity gave me
an understanding of
how the hospital
works which was
really essential in my
practice
Hospital’s
policy
document
3 hours

02/3/18
I m p r o v e d
f i r s t a i d
s k i l l s a s
p r o v i d e d
( XYZ
provider
N/A N/A Workshop and seminars first aid in
healthcare
This activity provided
me with good
knowledge and a
practical competence of
conducting first aid in
the safest way possible.
I will use the skills to
save patients when am
part of the medical
emergency team.
Refer
to
item7
2 days

References
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R. and Tsey, K., 2015. Interventions to improve cultural competency in health care for Indigenous peoples of Australia,
New Zealand, Canada and the USA: a systematic review. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(2), pp.89-98.
Feinberg, L.F., 2014. Moving toward person-and family-centred care. Public Policy & Aging Report, 24(3), pp.97-101.
Hunt, J., 2013. Engaging with Indigenous Australia-exploring the conditions for productive relationships with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
communities.
O'Dwyer, C., 2013. Official conceptualisations of person-centred care: Which person counts?.Journal of Aging Studies, 27(3), pp.233-242.