Importance of Professional Development for Nurses in Indigenous Care

This assignment delves into the critical role of professional development for nurses in delivering culturally safe healthcare to Indigenous populations. It emphasizes the need for nurses to enhance their cultural safety skills, underscoring the importance of understanding the specific local Indigenous community they serve. The assignment discusses how nurses can contribute to their professional growth, integrating evidence from literature to support the ideas. It highlights the significance of career goals, community interaction, and positive role models in fostering continuous learning and improved healthcare practices. The solution provides insights into how nurses can improve their understanding of diverse patients and communities, ultimately leading to better patient outcomes.

Running Head: PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 1
Professional Development
Name
Institution

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 2
1. Discuss the importance of nurses undertaking professional development
activities to increase their cultural safety skills in delivering appropriate care to
Indigenous people, and explain why it is important to be aware of information
relevant to the specific local Indigenous community you are working with. (2.5
marks)
Healthcare provision needs to be considerate of the needs of the patients in context so as to
provide better services. Dealing with indigenous communities is usually challenging as they
are usually unaware of the important factors that determine their health situations (Nieva,
2003). Health practitioners including doctors and nurses have to be culturally informed to
provide quality healthcare services to diverse individuals. Patients have different ways of
expressing their pain and suffering including the use of silence and other means that the
professionals need to understand in their interactions.
Nurses need career development strategies to deal with indigenous communities because they
can only help a patient if they understand their situation first. The indigenous communities
lack understanding of health problems facing them and therefore explaining might be a hard
task (Alert, 2008). This explains why most of them end up succumbing to their diseases due
to their inability to express themselves. Professional development is therefore an important
aspect when it comes to quality healthcare provision of the indigenous communities. The
skills that nurses and doctors obtain during this time enable them deal with their patients
better. They learn to communicate with diverse people and reach for understanding in every
interaction which is one way or the other the first step in helping their patients (Alert, 2008).
Once they can understand each other, then delivering better care is an easy step for the nurse
as she can already comprehend the situation of the patient.
When providing public health care services, it is crucial for the professionals involved to be
aware of the specific information about a particular community. Such knowledge is important

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 3
in ensuring that a nurse can relate the patient’s health with the values and believes of the
community. Most of the indigenous individuals feel much better and comfortable if the
people attending to their health understand the situations surrounding their existence (Nieva,
2003). They can heal better when they have confidence in the health personnel taking care of
their health.
2. Identify and discuss three (3) ways that nurses can contribute to their own
professional development in delivering culturally safe care to Indigenous peoples. (2.5
marks for each example). You are required to integrate evidence from the literature to
support your ideas.
Nursing should be taken as a continuing profession in such a way that the nurses need to keep
on advancing and developing their ideas. There are so many developments in the field of
medicine that require an individual to learn more so as to keep in touch with any issues that
may arise. Delivering healthcare to the indigenous communities requires more of professional
development for the nurses to be culturally enlightened and hence more experienced in the
field (Cooper, 2009). Some of the activities that the nurses can do to advance their knowledge
include the following:
Developing a broader career goal which reflect into the education, skills and experiences of
the individuals involved. These goals should cover any possible medical adventure especially
dealing with diverse patients and communities (Pool, 2013). The nurse will therefore be able
to get the necessary skills and experiences required to deliver better healthcare to the
indigenous communities.
Nurses can also expose themselves to the particular situation of work in such a way that they
interact more with the indigenous communities in their lives (Pool, 2013). Such interactions

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 4
ensure that the doctors and nurses can advance their professional knowledge to perform better
in the future.
Finally a nurse should surround themselves with positive role models who give them
directions of giving quality services regardless of the situation of work. The positive
company can give one some insights of growing as a health care professional.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT 5
References
Alert, S. E. (2008). Behaviors that undermine a culture of safety. Sentinel event alert , (40).
Cooper, E. (2009). Creating a culture of professional development: A milestone pathway tool
for registered nurses. . The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing , 40(11), 501-508.
Nieva, V. F. (2003). Safety culture assessment: a tool for improving patient safety in
healthcare organizations. . Quality and Safety in Health Care , 12(suppl 2), ii17-ii23.
Pool, I. P. (2013). Nurses’ and managers’ perceptions of continuing professional
development for older and younger nurses: a focus group study. . International journal of
nursing studies , 50(1), 34-43.