Douglas - Introduction to Aboriginal Health and Health Care in Canada: Bridging Health and Healing 1st Edition

Introduction to Aboriginal Health
and Health Care in Canada

Vasiliki Douglas, PhD, MA, BA, BSN, is an instructor at the College of New Caledonia, Prince George, British Columbia, in the School of Health Sciences. Dr. Douglas holds a PhD in History of Nursing and Anthropology (University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta), a BA and MA in Ancient History/Classics (McGill University, Montreal, Quebec) and a BSN (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia). She is a member of the International Network for Circumpolar Health Research. She was a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) ArcticNet Postdoctoral Fellow (UNBC/20092011); and has won multiple research grants to study and present on Indigenous Health Research (Canada and Norway). Dr. Douglas has publications focusing on Inuvialuit and Inuit traditional medical care: midwifery, food/cultural security, reconciling traditional knowledge, and climate change (International Journal of Circumpolar Health, Nursing Inquiry, Alaska Medicine). She is the principal investigator on a current research project: Food Security, Ice, Climate and Community Health: Climate Change Impact on Traditional Food Security in Canadian Inuit Communities. Dr. Douglas speaks three languages including French and Greek and has studied Latin and Inuktitut.

Introduction to Aboriginal Health
and Health Care in Canada

Bridging Health and Healing

Vasiliki Douglas, PhD, MA, BA, BSN

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Composition: Newgen Imaging

ISBN: 978-0-8261-1797-7

e-book ISBN: 978-0-8261-1799-1

13 14 15 16 17 / 5 4 3 2 1

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Douglas, Vasiliki Kravariotis.

Introduction to aboriginal health and health care in Canada : bridging health and healing / Vasiliki Douglas.

p. ; cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-0-8261-1797-7 ISBN 978-0-8261-1799-1 (e-book)

I. Title.

[DNLM: 1. Minority HealthCanada. 2. Ethnic GroupsethnologyCanada. 3. Health Services, IndigenousCanada. 4. Minority GroupsCanada. 5. Transcultural NursingmethodsCanada. WA 300 DC2]

RA563.M56

362.108900971dc23

2013011533

Printed in the United States of America by Bang Printing.

Contents

Preface

ORIGINS OF THIS TEXT

Pedagogical Gap

This book has its origins in my experience teaching Aboriginal health to nursing students. When I began I was aware that there was a large and rapidly growing body of research on Aboriginal health. I was, however, surprised to find that there was no textbook specifically written to introduce nursing students to this important field. The pedagogical gap this presented was one that I found hard to fill, and in conversation with others in the field, found that my experience was common among my fellow instructors.

There is broad agreement that nursing students need a dedicated textbook on Aboriginal health in Canada. As schools of nursing increasingly adopt the Canadian Nursing Associations recommendations to fully integrate Aboriginal health into their curricula, the lacuna left without such a text becomes only more obvious.

SUGGESTIONS BY STUDENTS

I have now taught Aboriginal Health to nursing students for half a decade and the structure of this book reflects both my experience teaching and the suggestions of many students for improvements in course structure and content. They have been my proofreaders and editors from well before this project was no more than a vague idea through its development into a reality. I am extremely grateful to them for their support and encouragement and the excellent feedback they offered when I ran many of the concepts I developed past them.

Personal Experiences of Aboriginal Health Issues and Perspectives on Health and Wellness

My doctoral research concerned the development of community midwifery programs in the Canadian Arctic. My fieldwork there, and the hospitality and assistance I experienced from Inuit, nurses, administrators and physicians, did much to nurture my interest in Canadian Aboriginal health. More importantly, my observations of how Inuit residents and midwives interacted with each other led me to develop the concept of epistemological accommodation, which is the theoretical core of this book.

PURPOSE OF THIS TEXT

Nursing Students and Instructors

This text is intended primarily to provide nursing students with an accessible guide to the health of Canadian First Nations, Mtis and Inuitthe Aboriginal peoples of Canada. Most nurses practising in Canada will encounter Aboriginal patients in the course of their careers, indeed for some the majority of their patients will be Aboriginal. It is important for these and future professionals to understand the range of cultural expression that comprises Aboriginal culture and society in Canada today. It is important to be mindful that some Aboriginal patients may participate in traditional culture, while some may not. However, most Aboriginal people in Canada do share certain cultural tropes that may differ from those of the general population, and it is important for health care professionals to be aware of these differences. Not only is it important for the professionals to be aware that they may exist for their patients but it is also important to understand that it is incumbent upon them to provide appropriate, culturally safe care without losing sight of their own professional standards.