Article Text
Abstract
Objectives The provision of supportive and palliative care for an indigenous people in Nova Scotia, Canada, was examined to further our understanding and thereby improve cultural competency. Most of Nova Scotia's indigenous people are Mi'kmaq. The Mi'kmaq Nation lives in Atlantic Canada as well as New England in the eastern USA.
Methods Themes were identified in the literature and through discussion with seven experts who have Mi'kmaq health and cultural research expertise. This paper has been reviewed and approved by two Mi'kmaq consultants who frequently speak on behalf of the Mi'kmaq people in relation to health and cultural understanding. Recommendations for non-indigenous care providers are presented.
Results The themes identified focused on jurisdictional issues and cultural understanding. They are interconnected and grounded in the historic Mi'kmaq context of colonialism. Jurisdictional issues experienced by the Mi'kmaq affect access, continuity and appropriateness of care. Cultural concepts were associated with worldview, spirituality, the role of family and community relationships and communication norms, and thereby with the alignment of values and language in the provision of care. Three Mi'kmaq concepts are noted: apiksiktatulti, nemu'ltus and salite.
Conclusion Through reflection on the situation of Nova Scotia's Mi'kmaq, non-indigenous healthcare providers can assess how they might increase their cultural understanding in the provision of supportive and palliative care. Recommendations relate to the health system, relationships with individual persons and direction for research.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial License, which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non commercial and is otherwise in compliance with the license. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/ and http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/legalcode
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Footnotes
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Funding This report was carried out with support from a Canadian Institutes for Health Research Interdisciplinary Capacity Enhancement for vulnerable populations grant number FRN-80067.
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Competing interests None.
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Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.
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Open Access This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 3.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/