Care of Aboriginal Populations

  • Demonstrate awareness of the connection between historical and current government practices towards Indigenous peoples (including, but not limited to: colonization, residential schools, treaties, bills, land claims, segregation and Indian hospitals), and the intergenerational health outcomes that have resulted.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the impact and correlation of the various medical, social and spiritual determinants of health and well-being on Indigenous peoples.
  • Demonstrate an awareness of the context of patient referrals, especially as it relates to patients travelling unaccompanied from remote locations, and engage in effective patient-centered consultation with health care professionals in the patients’ home community to establish and ensure appropriate support systems and follow-up for sustained culturally appropriate care.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the cultural diversities of Indigenous peoples that result in a variety of perspectives, attitudes, beliefs and behaviours.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the strengths and resilience of Indigenous peoples, families and communities.
  • Demonstrate cultural safety as it pertains to individual Indigenous patients.
  • Establish positive therapeutic relationship with Indigenous patients and their families. Effective and culturally safe communication encourages reciprocity, equality, trust, respect, honesty and empathy.
  • Deliver information to Indigenous patients and their families regarding tests, reports, protocols and diagnoses and treatment plans in a way that is understandable, respectful and encourages participation in decision-making.
  • Demonstrate how to appropriately inquire whether an Indigenous patient is taking traditional herbs or medicines to treat their ailment and how to integrate that knowledge into their care.
  • Describe the complexity of providing health care in context to jurisdictional areas and local health service models.
  • Understand the discrimination which occurs in allocating medical resources or treatments which impact the inequalities in medical care at the population level.
  • Practice due diligence in applying a decolonizing approach to measurements of outcomes and interpretation of statistical data as it relates to overall improvements in population health for Indigenous populations.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the inequity of access to health care/health information for Indigenous peoples and factors such as discrimination, racism and assimilation that contribute to it.
  • Demonstrate an understanding of the impact of government policies on the healthcare of Indigenous communities.
  • Identify and acknowledge racism towards Indigenous people as a risk factor for illness and health inequity.
  • Demonstrate ways of respectfully addressing direct, indirect and institutionalized racism towards Indigenous peoples.
  • Demonstrate appropriate strategies of working with Indigenous populations to identify health issues and needs.
  • Demonstrate effective sharing and promotion of population health strategies and health information with Indigenous patients/populations.
  • Demonstrate ways of respectfully acquiring information (in a transparent manner) about Indigenous populations which involves communities as partners. This may include respectfully engaging in local community protocols required to seek knowledge/research.
  • Critically assess the strengths and limitations of available data used as key indicators of Canadian Aboriginal health and recognize the rights of Indigenous communities relating to self-determination of research agendas and processes.
  • Identify, acknowledge and analyse one’s own cultural values or considered emotional response to the many histories and contemporary environment of Indigenous peoples and offer opinions respectfully.
  • Acknowledge and analyse the limitations of one’s own knowledge and perspectives, and incorporate new ways of seeing, valuing and understanding with regard to Indigenous health practice.
  • Understand the importance of reciprocity and exchange with Indigenous communities and engage in opportunities to give back to communities in return for contributing to resident’s learning opportunity.
  • Demonstrate authentic, supportive and inclusive behaviour in all exchanges with Indigenous individuals and communities.