StFX nursing department pilots new culturally safe curriculum
February 18, 2010 5:21 PM
StFX recently announced the implementation of a “cultural safety curriculum” in the nursing department.
The curriculum changes are the result of development involving the Aboriginal Nurses Association of Canada (ANAC) and the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing (CASN). ANAC and CASN have selected six Canadian schools to participate in the initiative.
In addition to StFX, the Nova Scotia Community College, Trent University, Laurentian University, the University of Alberta and Langara College will also participate in the pilot project.
The formal launching occurred on June 11 2009, and StFX made the announcement of their participation on January 13, 2010.
Jane McMillan, a professor of anthropology and Canadian Research Chair in Indigenous Peoples and Sustainable Communities, says that this program is a positive move forward in addressing what she calls a “university wide deficiency [...] in terms of indigenous content in courses, and in terms of having relevant programming available for indigenous students.”
The new nursing curriculum will be based on cultural safety competencies as laid out in ANAC’s framework entitled, “Cultural Competence and Cultural Safety in Nursing Education: A Framework for First Nations, Inuit and Métis Nursing.”
This framework arose out of a partnership between the Canadian Nurses association, ANAC and CASN, who partnered in Health Canada’s Aboriginal Health Human Resources Initiative.
As part of the initiative, entitled “Making it Happen: Strengthening Aboriginal Health Human Resources,” approximately $405,000 in funding was made available.
McMillan explains that this framework outlines guidelines about what kind of information needs to be included and how to incorporate it into the different levels of a student’s degree.
She explains that the curriculum changes are part of a larger focus on cultural competencies based on a grant received from the Atlantic Aboriginal Health Research Initiative worth $184,000 over two years.
Funds are to be used to develop “a seminar option program, part of [which] is developing a curriculum, a speaker series, [and] creating cultural competency workshops.”
The proposal was put forward by Aboriginal Student Advisor Krista Hanscomb.
“[The AAHRI was looking for] institutions that were willing or wanting [to include] cultural competency in their curriculum, to redevelop their curriculum so that it was welcoming and relevant to Aboriginal students,” she explains of the application process.
Curriculum development will be done in conjunction with various NSCC nursing schools across Nova Scotia and will involve such programs as workshops addressing cultural competency and curriculum development, as well as discourse with key members of both NSCC programs, StFX nursing faculty and Aboriginal health providers and leaders.
Concepts of “cultural safety” and “cultural competency” are “terminologies in transition,” McMillan details.
“[These terms are part of a] very dynamic process around inclusion, access, and also informing not only faculty but other non-Aboriginal students of some different ways of knowing, different types of knowledge, different ontologies.”
Hanscomb explains culturally safe competencies in terms of their practical applications.
“[They are assurances] that the information the students are receiving, in our case in an educational setting…is relevant to their lives, communities and their culture; [that it is] welcoming, safe and [that] they feel comfortable.”
“A lot of that falls into the history and the background of Aboriginal communities, that that information becomes more available to the broader public,” she continues.
Morgan Moffitt, a fourth year honours anthropology student, also agrees that the new developments to the nursing program are positive.
“So many statistics show how much our country has failed Aboriginal health: suicide rates, sexual health, community health. [They] are pointing to the fact that Canada’s systemic discrimination has let down the Aboriginal people and something needs to be done; and hopefully this type of program, with the right people involved will help develop more culturally appropriate methods,” anticipates Moffitt.
Indeed, McMillan states that the nursing program is just one facet of an ongoing effort to make education at StFX more inclusive and attentive to indigenous issues. The anthropology department has recently undergone a similar initiative, including the development of an indigenous studies stream.
