Nurses facilitating reconciliation through education

Lyn Ramsay, Southern Cross University
Stephen Kermode, Southern Cross University

Abstract

In 1996, Health of Indigenous Australian Peoples, was introduced as a compulsory unit in a Bachelor of Health Science in Nursing course and as an elective unit for students from other courses. The first cohort of students in the unit were surveyed to determine whether their attitudes to 21 issues that affect the health of Aboriginal people were more appropriate at the end of the unit than they had been before the unit. The findings were that the student group's post-unit attitudes were more appropriate in all 21 areas. The results support a recommendation that units designed to increase health workers understanding of issues that affect the health of Aboriginal people must be compulsory if reconciliation is to be achieved between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people.