Nursing Op-Ed: Enhancing Indigenous Community Participation & Care

This essay critically analyzes the challenges in realizing the aspirations of the common good within the nursing profession, focusing on the participation of Indigenous communities both locally and globally. It highlights the historical context of deteriorating conditions for Indigenous Australians since colonization, marked by disparities in healthcare access, employment, education, and political involvement. Despite social campaigns aimed at closing the gap, significant health status gaps persist. The essay emphasizes the importance of actively involving Indigenous elders and leaders in decision-making processes to understand their perspectives and needs, particularly in healthcare where cultural competence is lacking. Furthermore, it addresses the necessity of including Indigenous communities in policy development to respect their autonomy and dignity. Drawing parallels with indigenous populations in Canada, Africa, and the Americas, the essay underscores the global nature of these challenges. It advocates for the application of Catholic principles of social thought, such as respect for human dignity and participation, to ensure equitable access to healthcare and promote a more egalitarian society. This approach aims to empower Indigenous communities to shape their healthcare and overall well-being.

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OPEN EDITORIAL
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Since the period of colonisation, the condition of the Indigenous Australians had been
only seen to be deteriorating and the present health condition of the people had not been
better. In the different spheres of life, there has been a marked gap between the Indigenous
Australians and the non- Indigenous Australians in terms of accessibility to health services,
opportunities for employment and education, participation in decision making in the political
arenas, in sports and many others (Somerville et al., 2017). Gibson et al., (2015) is of the
opinion that one of the most astonishing facts that can be observed is the health status gap
between the native and the non native and even the establishment of social campaigns like the
“closing the gap” policies and others could not bring out fruitful outcomes. Therefore, it is
very important to know where exactly lays the shortcoming of the nation in bridging the gap
in the health status between the two population.
Studies, which have been conducted in finding the root, cause of the failure of the
campaigns. These studies have suggested that although the westerners have taken various
innovative measures and creative steps for the betterment of the living conditions and
enhancement of the human rights and self-determination of the native people, few have
actually included them in the services (Clifford et al., 2015). It is very important for the
native people specially the elders and the leaders of the Indigenous communities to actively
participate in the decision-making sessions. Such sessions would be significant in
understanding the view point of the Indigenous Australians and these would help in the
identifying their needs and requirements that would help them to live better quality lives
(Cyril et al., 2015).
One of the best examples that can be used here is the healthcare services. Different
reporting has stated that the Indigenous Australians are seen to avoid the western healthcare
system irrespective of the huge promotion and encouragement of the Indigenous Australians
to get service from the western healthcare system (De Freitas et al., 2015). In order to identify

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the root causes of this avoidance, it is important for the concerned authorities to conduct
researches that would include the feelings and view points of the Indigenous Australians. Oh
et al., (2015) stated that conducting superficial observational researches without including the
Indigenous Australians could never yield fruitful results, as it will never reveal what the
Indigenous Australians feel and require. Survey and interview based researches have shown
that the main complaints of the Indigenous Australians are that they do not receive culturally
competent services from western healthcare centres. The professionals do not care their
cultural traditions, preferences and inhibitions. Therefore, in this way, it is very important for
the nursing healthcare professionals to include the Indigenous Australians in decision-
making, reveal their traditional requirements and thereby help professionals develop care
plans that would put them in centre of decision-making and consent. This would have
positive outcomes on the health. The nursing healthcare professionals need to be culturally
sensitive, culturally competent, culturally unbiased as well as need to be culturally
knowledgeable to tackle the needs of such patients (Cremers, 2017). The nursing
professionals need to practice both verbal and non-verbal communication skills that make
them feel that they are invited to participate in decision making in their one heath. This would
respect their dignity and autonomy making them feel satisfied.
Another very important arena where the Indigenous Australians needs to be included
is the policy development. The present trend shows that stalwart policy makers undertake
extensive researches about the needs and requirements of the Indigenous communities and
accordingly interact with health department, employment departments, education departments
and other departments of the nation to implement policies. This might appear as a negative
aspect where the communities find themselves not consulted and discussed about their
concerns and issues even when the policies are for their betterment only (Massaro et al.,
2015). This might affect their autonomy and dignity making them feel that their decisions and

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though procedures are not respected or that they are held not enough credible to decide for
themselves. Therefore, it is extremely important for the policy makers to help the Indigenous
communities participate actively in decision-making and put forward their concerns, values
and beliefs that are important to be included in the policies.
It is not only a national or a local problem as indigenous people from many nations
globally face the same issues. Aboriginals of Canada are also seen to live disadvantaged lives
with very little acceptance and participation in their nation politics, decision-making and
other important aspects. Various indigenous people in the continent of Africa have been seen
to lead very poor quality lives with even not getting two meals a day for their survival. The
indigenous people living around Ghana and Caribbean in the American continents also lead
poor quality lives although government are allocating funds for their social and community
development (Massaro et al., 2015). Unless, the community people are made active
participants in the decision making framework and their main concerns an issue are queries
and worked upon, policies will fail and conditions of their lives will continue to deteriorate.
Common good needs to be ensured and therefore professionals need to work for gaols
that are beneficial for all members of the globe ensuring quality lives. This would help all
members of the nation irrespective of their socioeconomic status, races, class, ethics,
background and others to enjoy the same fruits of success and healthy living by active
participation. A number of principles of Catholic principle of social thought need to be kept
in mind by the decision makers. The principle of respect for human dignity as well as the
principle for respect of the human life state that every people is worthy of respect by simply
because of the virtue of human being. They should never be treated badly because of
“disability, poverty, age, lack of success or race,” and hence, it is important for us to give the
scope to the Indigenous communities to participate actively in their decision-making about
their own health without pressurizing western healthcare tactics in them (Cremers, 2017). The

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principle of participation also states that humans have the right to participate and shape the
human society helping in development of “socio-economic, political and cultural life”.
Therefore, including the first people in decision-making framework of the nation is not only
the duty of the government but each member residing in the nation to develop a safe and
healthy future of the nation who hopes to be egalitarian society.

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References:
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.
Cremers, M. (2017). What corporate governance can learn from catholic social
teaching. Journal of Business Ethics, 145(4), 711-724.
Cyril, S., Smith, B. J., Possamai-Inesedy, A., & Renzaho, A. M. (2015). Exploring the role of
community engagement in improving the health of disadvantaged populations: a
systematic review. Global health action, 8(1), 29842.
De Freitas, C., & Martin, G. (2015). Inclusive public participation in health: policy, practice
and theoretical contributions to promote the involvement of marginalised groups in
healthcare. Social Science & Medicine, 135, 31-39.
Gibson, O., Lisy, K., Davy, C., Aromataris, E., Kite, E., Lockwood, C., ... & Brown, A.
(2015). Enablers and barriers to the implementation of primary health care
interventions for Indigenous people with chronic diseases: a systematic
review. Implementation Science, 10(1), 71.
Massaro, T. (2015). Living justice: Catholic social teaching in action. Rowman & Littlefield.
Oh, S. S., Galanter, J., Thakur, N., Pino-Yanes, M., Barcelo, N. E., White, M. J., ... & Borrell,
L. N. (2015). Diversity in clinical and biomedical research: a promise yet to be
fulfilled. PLoS medicine, 12(12), e1001918.

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Somerville, R., Cullen, J., McIntyre, M., Townsend, C., & Pope, S. (2017). Engaging
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in the ‘Proper Way. Newparadigm: the
Australian Journal on Psychosocial Rehabilitation, 14.