Abstract
Indigenous people have an integral role to play in improving Indigenous health outcomes by leading and being a part of the health workforce. Educating Indigenous health professionals is hence of great importance. Indigenous health students are not always acknowledged for their multiple professional and community roles and how these can affect their university education experience and success. This paper hence examines the experiences of 27 Indigenous health students and their lecturers at one Australian university around the concept of roles. The study used an Indigenous Research Methodology combined with theory driven thematic analysis. Results identified both positive and negative experiences of roles that significantly affect Indigenous health students. The study showed that students’ roles in family and community are complex and can come into conflict with student and future professional roles when students attend university. Academics interviewed for the research showed little to no understanding of Indigenous students’ complex existing roles. This research may assist universities and educators to support Indigenous health students to transition from community to university and achieve success.
Highlights
Indigenous people have an integral role to play in improving Indigenous health outcomes by leading and being a part of the health workforce
This article examines the experiences of 27 Indigenous health students and their lecturers at one Australian university around the concept of roles
To improve the health of Indigenous people in Australia, it is critical to increase the proportional representation of this group within the health workforce (Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Workforce Working Group, 2017; Department of Health and Ageing, 2008)
Summary
Indigenous people have an integral role to play in improving Indigenous health outcomes by leading and being a part of the health workforce. Before the arrival of the British to set up a penal colony, the roles of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were developed over many generations and were entwined with their cultural identity and specific expectations due to protocols and world view (Corporal, 2017; Holt, 2014; Nugent, 2015) Many of these roles would have included Indigenous people in health and leadership, such as traditional healers who provided for the healthcare needs of their cultural groups (Corporal, 2017; Holt, 2014; Nugent, 2015). By the 2000s, Australia had moved toward a national priority to train existing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workers in terms of formal qualifications and to attract more Indigenous young people into the health workforce
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