A team of Indigenous nursing academics are preparing to present their research to the international community when they attend the 37th annual Transcultural Nursing Conference in Las Vegas later this month.
USQ academics Lynne Stuart and Vicki-Ellen Horner will showcase their Indigenised model of student support that is geared toward assisting Indigenous students through nursing degrees.
Lynne said their presentation, Sharing the Footsteps of Cultural Knowledge to Orientate Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Nursing Students Enrolled in a Bachelor of Nursing Program: Beginning the Dreaming Journey, will look at orientation, retention and support strategies that enable Indigenous nursing students to realise their university goals.
'This conference gives us the opportunity to highlight Indigenous nursing and is affirmation of the work we have been doing in our small little corner of the world. Now it’s been recognised internationally,' Lynne said.
'Our work is about speaking the language of the culture in nursing - many students might not flourish in a western education system but this model can be modified to adapt to the needs of other cultures.'
In August the team were presented with a citation from the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) for their work in developing the Helping Hands student support model. The model is based on a collaborative support approach, and extends both within the university and its surrounding community.
'The Helping Hands model has helped make the USQ Department of Nursing and Midwifery a national leader in recruiting, training, educating and graduating Indigenous registered nurses,' Lynne said.
'The model has helped drive significant growth in enrolments and graduations from USQ’s nursing program. The annual graduation rate over the four-year period of 2007-2011, is now nearly six times that for the previous 17 years, when nursing first started at USQ.'
Lynne said a total of 52 Indigenous nursing students have graduated from USQ’s undergraduate and postgraduate nursing programs over the last four years.
While most of the success has been in the undergraduate Bachelor of Nursing program, there are currently 16 Indigenous students enrolled in USQ’s postgraduate nursing programs, including four PhD nursing students.
For further information about Indigenous nursing at USQ please contact Indigenousnursing@usq.edu.au.
Contact Details:
Connie-Louise Rego, USQ Media, +61 7 4631 2977
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