University Nursing: Indigenous Health and Wellbeing Reflection

This report reflects on the impact of Indigenous health and wellbeing on the author's future nursing practice, specifically focusing on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The reflection incorporates RN standards, university graduate attributes, and indigenous graduate attributes to provide a comprehensive analysis of cultural competence in nursing. The paper discusses the importance of understanding the socio-economic factors, mental health, and healthcare access issues faced by Indigenous populations. The author emphasizes the need for cultural competence, including language skills and respect for cultural beliefs, to provide person-centered care. The report highlights the role of a registered nurse in improving the quality of life for Indigenous people, aligning with the RN standards and university attributes. The author aims to enhance cultural understanding and communication to meet the needs of Indigenous patients. The reflection emphasizes that cultural competency is key to providing effective nursing care, and meeting the RN standards and graduate attributes.

Running head: REFLECTION IN NURSING
REFLECTION ON HOW THE INDIGENOUS HEALTH AND WELL-BEING WILL IMPACT
ON MY FUTURE NURSING PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1REFLECTION IN NURSING
The paper aims for reflecting on how the matter of health and well-being of the
indigenous people might impact my future nursing practice. The paper will be focusing on the
RN standards, my university graduate attributes and the indigenous graduate attributes, while
reflecting on the matter.
The issue of indigenous health and well-being is a widely addressed issue in Australia at
present time. The indigenous graduate attributes are the strategies adapted to improve the health
outcomes in the indigenous population (Power et al. 2018). One of those strategies is to educate
the healthcare professionals about the problems associated with the indigenous health. The health
problems in the Torres Strait Islander and the Aboriginal people are resulting from various
causes such as their socio-economic status, poor mental health due to various environmental and
cultural diversity factors along with the poor access to various healthcare facilities (Taylor and
Guerin 2019).
As per the RN standards it is very important for a registered nurse to be able to deliver a
proper patient care to the patients of various cultural and ethnic background (Cashin et al. 2017).
To serve this purpose, I feel that a registered nurse must have the knowledge on various issues
associated with the indigenous health problems and the causal factors behind those issues.
As per my university graduate attributes, a registered nurse is supposed to display
following qualities such as the ability to deliver a proper person centered care, professional
disposition, ability to communicate properly along with making an effective collaboration,
ability to display professional competence, proper use of knowledge and translating ability and
finally the display of respect to the indigenous culture.
The problem of the health issues arise from various factors. One of those factors are the
discrimination issues they face in various healthcare facilities due to language differences,

2REFLECTION IN NURSING
difference in the cultural practices and beliefs and the racial discrimination. The healthcare
workers of the facilities are mostly from the non-indigenous background and they fail to
understand the different languages and cultural practices when making an attempt to deliver
proper patient care to the aboriginal patients.
As a registered nurse my focus will be to make decisions and take proper actions to
improve the quality of life in the aboriginal and the Torres state islander people. In order to
achieve that goal my focus should be learning many languages and various cultural beliefs and
aspects, so I will be able to develop the cultural competence.
The cultural competence skill involves paying respect to various cultural beliefs and
practices, when developing a person centered care plan (Bertilone et al. 2017). It will also help
me to make proper communication with the aboriginal patients. I will be able to meet the proper
RN standard during my future nursing practice only if I have proper knowledge on the
indigenous language and cultures.
Hence, it can be concluded that the RN standards along with my university graduate
attributes and the indigenous graduate attributes are focused on similar aspects when it comes to
the improvement of indigenous health conditions. A registered nursing practice must involve the
cultural competency practice which will help in meeting every aspects of the attributes and the
guidelines.

3REFLECTION IN NURSING
References:
Cashin, A., Heartfield, M., Bryce, J., Devey, L., Buckley, T., Cox, D., Kerdo, E., Kelly, J.,
Thoms, D. and Fisher, M., 2017. Standards for practice for registered nurses in
Australia. Collegian, 24(3), pp.255-266.
Power, T., Virdun, C., Gorman, E., Doab, A., Smith, R., Phillips, A. and Gray, J., 2018. Ensuring
Indigenous cultural respect in Australian undergraduate nursing students. Higher Education Research &
Development, 37(4), pp.837-851.
Taylor, K. and Guerin, P., 2019. Health care and Indigenous Australians: cultural safety in practice.
Macmillan International Higher Education.
Bertilone, C.M., McEvoy, S.P., Gower, D., Naylor, N., Doyle, J. and Swift-Otero, V., 2017. Elements of
cultural competence in an Australian Aboriginal maternity program. Women and Birth, 30(2), pp.121-128.