Indigenous Health Issues for Nurses & Midwives

Indigenous Health Issues for Nurses and Midwives Racism can be said to be an overlooked co-morbidity facing Indigenous health inAustralia today. In the recent past, popular intervention has been focused towards improving the health sector in Australia following recognition and acknowledgement of discrepancy of health outcomes existing between indigenous and non-indigenous Australians. This discrepancy has been attributed partly to cultural difference and Australia`s racism background. Because of this, there has been need to offer cultural training to health workers primarily to raise cultural awareness levels with view to improve the health of indigenous people in Australia (Smith, 2007). This paper will evaluate the issue racism in relation to the indigenous Australian people, discussing the effects of racism to an individual and the importance of Cultural Safety care for Nursing and Midwifery practice to overcome racism. There has been a growing awareness of the disparity in measured health results between two Australian populations (i.e. indigenous and non-indigenous populations) (NHMRC, 2005). Among the various factors attributable to morbidity and mortality rates, the relative lack of access to effective healthcare services is one of the most significant causal factors (NHMRC, 2005). The lack of access to healthcare services can be explained in the indigenous context, to mean not only the availability and affordability, but also the cultural accessibility and suitability of the healthcare services. In Australia, cultural disparity between the indigenous people and health service providers has been described by scholars as a "cultural chasm" that has emerged to be a major barrier to access of effective healthcare by the indigenous population since the 1970s (Nakata, 2001. p.51). The "cultural chasm" has generated negative attitudes and stereotypes which have therefore characterized the relationships between the healthcare providers and the indigenous people. For instance, it has been easy to find Aborigines seeking healthcare services elsewhere instead of visiting the local healthcare workers. On the other hand, non-indigenous health workers are also affected by the cultural chasm since many of them encounter difficulties dealing with their Aboriginal clients. It is because of these facts that indigenous cultural training in Australia has been designed to educate health workers with an understanding of the "indigenous culture" so that they can be in good position to better manage and satisfy their Aboriginal clients (Williams 1999). Racism refers to the act of treating others unfairly based on their race. The immediate effect suffered by a victim of racism is the feeling of discrimination/isolation itself. Since the feeling is psychologically generated and motivated, racism is a significant cause of illness and has been considered by society as a health issue. Scholars have argued that a victim of racism is likely to develop mental health issues due to stress associated with the resultant feeling of discrimination. If an individual suffers continued stress, he is likely to develop anxiety and anger or go into depression. When this happens, such a person may be at risk of developing heart related problems, including ...