Opinion Editorial: Improving Healthcare for Indigenous Communities

This opinion editorial addresses the critical healthcare disparities faced by Indigenous communities in Australia, highlighting issues such as lower life expectancy, lack of access to services, and cultural insensitivity within healthcare settings. The author, a nursing professional, emphasizes the need for improved community participation, culturally safe practices, and increased trust between healthcare providers and Indigenous populations. The essay discusses specific challenges, like unwelcoming hospital environments and poor communication, while also exploring the role of nurses in promoting health awareness, facilitating check-ups, and implementing programs to address the needs of the Indigenous community. The author stresses the importance of addressing the root causes of health inequalities and implementing trustworthy healthcare professionals to reduce gaps between hospitals and Aboriginals, ultimately working towards improving healthcare outcomes and fostering a more equitable and inclusive healthcare system. The author references several studies to support the claims made in the essay and calls for government action to improve the healthcare system for the Indigenous population.

Running Head: OPINION EDITORIAL
OPINION EDITORIAL
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Assessment 2:
Topic: Improving Participation for Indigenous Communities
In Australia, the Indigenous community people are experiencing lack of participation
regarding their improvement in terms of health, education, business, and human rights. I am
very heartbroken to experience the condition of the health status of the indigenous people of
Australia. The life expectancy of indigenous people is approximately 10 years less than other
Australians. There are longstanding challenges they face while availing all sorts of facilities.
The Indigenous Communities are termed as Aboriginals as per The Western Australian
Department of Health. However, non-Aboriginal Australians are being funded to solve all
their issues over the past years. Therefore, a huge gap lies in between the Torres-Strait
Islander people and the non-Aboriginal Australians.
Being in a nursing profession, I suppose the improvement of healthcare of the
aboriginals’ will consist of several challenges in a country such as Australia where various
cultural people resides (Walter, 2016). For an example, the aboriginal people faces many
challenges to avail all the necessary services, such as they receive unwelcoming behaviour in
the hospitals while they go for accessing nursing or healthcare services. In most cases, they
are alienated which causes inflexible treatment of the community people. The indigenous
people also experience poor communicational approach from the healthcare practitioners.
Therefore, nurses can help in making good conversation regarding the problems of the
patients, consulting them to visit more often if the situation is more critical. Nurses can make
necessary consultation and monthly check up initiatives to spread awareness among the
community people regarding health services (Bainbridge et al., 2015). According to me, there
will be challenges in many ways, such as the people will avoid to get in touch regarding their

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medical issues at first and in cases more often. However, as a medical practitioner, it will be
my responsibility to reach out with all the necessary medication process to them in order to
enhance their health issues.
The process of community participation for the Indigenous people of Australia is
mostly focused on healthcare services they are lacking and needed to be given at any cost. A
community departed from all sorts of amenities, whereas others are availing it very easily can
be very exhausted and that may result in drawing them back into their ways of leading life
rather than depending on the government (Hunter & Schwab, 2018). According to my
opinion, the main goal of nursing services is to treat people in their illness. The welfare of a
community is based on the healthcare services is purely based on how the nursing services
are carried forward (Clifford et al., 2015). Therefore, as a nurse my goal will be to serve them
better by making consultation programs on how healthcare services can actually benefit them,
why they should come to the hospitals rather than staying back on their position. Nurses are
mainly community workers, who can make and implement change in the health services. In
order to enhance our working goals, the cultural safety measures need to be taken as well,
before treating them. Such as, knowing their cultural aspects or rituals can help in proceeding
further. Many incidents have shown that, Indigenous people have less trust in the hospital,
such as they do not wait for the discharge report, whenever they feel healthier than the past
day, they leave the hospitals. In most cases, aboriginals’ reason of death is Heart Attack and
researches show that it is three times compared to the Australians (Walter, 2016). They are
more likely to get admitted in the hospitals with Acute Coronary Syndrome. Honestly
speaking, a community not-having all the necessary services from a government are likely to
be put in threat. Therefore, qualified and critical situation handling nurses can make welfare
by providing them a well maintained quality of health services by enhancing trust and
bonding in between the community people and nurses.

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Hereby, adhering all the necessities of the Indigenous people, the participation of
communities all around the globe is a priority that considers many aspects related to the
communication, education, and empowerment (Hunter & Schwab, 2018). However, the most
important aspect of a community development is based on healthcare services. Therefore, it is
considered to be one of the top most priorities all around the world. The implementation of
programs related to the aboriginal’s healthcare can be very effective in making a sustainable
change in the community while conducting health check-ups in the hospitals. In order to
maintain and grow the participation process, the Government of Australia needs to focus on
implementing more trustworthy healthcare professionals who can reduce the gap in between
hospitals and aboriginals. However, the most appropriate approach can be started with
having trust on the healthcare services firstly and the backbone of healthcare services are
nurses (Walter, 2016).

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References:
Bainbridge, R., McCalman, J., Clifford, A., & Tsey, K. (2015). Cultural competency in the
delivery of health services for Indigenous people.
Clifford, A., McCalman, J., Bainbridge, R., & 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), 89-98.
Hunter, B., & Schwab, R. (2018). The determinants of Indigenous educational outcomes.
Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research (CAEPR), The
Australian National University.
Schwab, R. (2018). Twenty years of policy recommendations for indigenous education:
overview and research implications. Canberra, ACT: Centre for Aboriginal Economic
Policy Research (CAEPR), The Australian National University.
Walter, M. (2016). Data politics and Indigenous representation in Australian statistics.
Indigenous data sovereignty: Toward an agenda, 38, 79-98.