Indigenous Nurses Day celebrates their contributions to the nursing profession

Indigenous Nurses Day is April 10, which is the birth date of Edith Anderson Montour, A Kanien’keha:ka (Mohawk) woman and First First Nations woman to become a registered nurse in Canada.

The day acknowledges the significant contributions of First Nations, Métis and Inuit nurses to the nursing profession.

“Nurses are generally the unsung heroes in health care,” said Holly Graham.

“They’ve kind of been the backbone. They’ve been workers, they’ve been innovators, they’ve been advocates, they’ve been researchers and they want people to have the best health outcomes.”

Graham, who is from Cree Thunderchild First Nation in Saskatchewan is a professor And Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

Graham, who has been a registered nurse for 41 years, said nurses are the foundation of health care because they make up the largest percentage of the area’s workforce.

In her time as a nurse, she said she has seen an increased acknowledgment and awareness of the history of colonization, health disparities between Indigenous and non-Indigenous populations and, in the broader context, the social determinants of health, which contributes to a more holistic health approach.

“Those concepts have changed how we look at a person coming into a situation and how we understand (them),” he said, “helping to work with the patient to prioritize a path toward wellness.”

Graham said the Canadian Association of Schools of Nursing in Canada now requires a curriculum on Indigenous health issues as part of their accreditation, responding to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s Call to Action 24.

Nurses form close relationships with their patients or clients, giving them a unique position to identify and mitigate the potential harm caused by “cultural conflict,” Graham said.

“Culture impacts how we see ourselves in the world, how we see the world,” he said.

Indigenous peoples have always had their own health care systems, Graham said, and have been more receptive to the integration of Western medicine and traditional medicines into their profession.

“I think it’s operating much better now with this increased understanding and willingness as part of reconciliation,” he said.

Education ‘an absolute must’

Hilary Fry, Canadian Nurses Association’s first Indigenous policy analyst, That said, in addition to National Nurses Week, celebrated in May, Indigenous Nurses Day is all about uplifting Indigenous nurses in Canada, so that doesn’t detract from the good work happening in Indigenous nursing practice.

fry is one Labrador Inuk nurse of mixed ancestry; Her father’s side of the family is Nunatsiavut community of hopedale.

She said all CNA nurses undergo cultural sensitivity training that highlights “the historical challenges that Indigenous peoples have faced, particularly around access to health services” and what steps can be taken to move forward in a positive way.

Fry said that traditionally, Western ways of knowing and being were prioritized in her profession and “were considered superior to Indigenous ways of knowing and being”, which is a challenge for Indigenous nurses.

She said there is also a lack of resources for Indigenous nurses working in their communities.

She said education for nursing students working with Indigenous people is “absolutely essential” for all nurses.

“However, I think it’s really important to recruit and retain Indigenous nurses that our non-Indigenous colleagues understand that the onus is really on our non-Indigenous colleagues when it comes to participating in reconciliation.”