How have the Schools of Nursing in Canada responded to Call to Action # 24

INDIGENOUS WATCHDOG: HAMILTON – Terrible!

We call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a course dealing with Aboriginal health issues, including the history and legacy of residential schools, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, Treaties and Aboriginal rights, and Indigenous teachings and practices. This will require skills-based training in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism.

Indigenous Watchdog contacted 93 member institutions of the Association of School Nursing in Canada: 59 Universities/ Polytechnics and 34 Colleges. Indigenous Watchdog compiled responses to how each of the 93 institutions responded to Call to Action # 24 by scanning their websites and filling in a pre-defined template with the relevant information. Each University/College then had an opportunity to provide any corrections/revisions and provide any additional information to ensure that each document delivered an accurate representation of what they were each doing to advance Call to Acton #24.

43 member institutions (46%) – for whatever reason – did NOT respond to multiple requests

What are the results?

39 or 42% have delivered 4 or more of the 5 identified content areas in a mandatory course:

100% = 24
90% = 3
80% = 12

54 or 58% have underdelivered on the required components of the mandatory course:

60% = 19
50% = 1
40% = 9
20% = 5
0% = 20

The 52 Faculty/School of Nursing documents that are now on the Indigenous Watchdog site also include the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing’s “Statement” of apology for colonialism resulting from nursing education that identifies 5 specific steps to address the harms including:

Anti-Racism, Cultural Safety, and Humility: Promote education, resources, and practices that address anti-Indigenous racism, supporting decolonization, cultural humility, and cultural safety for nursing faculty, staff, and students. Promote institutional policies and processes that address systemic racism to foster an inclusive and equitable learning environment.
Curriculum Revision: Promote a review of nursing education curricula to ensure a strengths-based focus and trauma-informed approach, the inclusion of content on the continued impact of colonialism and racism on Indigenous health, as well as Indigenous perspectives on health and well-being.

What happened? Why have so many University/Colleges Schools of Nursing failed to deliver? Systemic racism and discrimination in health are very much a lived experience for Indigenous people everywhere in Canada: in ALL provinces and in ALL territories.

Murray Sinclair, the former Chair of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada stated that “Education got us into this mess, Education will get us out.”

Not if the Universities and Colleges fail to deliver the basic elements of education on Indigenous issues to ALL students who may have a direct impact on Indigenous lives.

Click on the following link to view the complete post on Indigenous Watchdog:

How have the Schools of Nursing in Canada responded to Call to Action # 24