Featured image: Diva Madan (Nurse Educator – Higher Education), Australian College of Nursing
Across every generation, our Elders play a critical role to our communities and families. The 2023 theme for NAIDOC Week is ‘For Our Elders’ and emphasises this important role for passing on culture, knowledge and wisdom between generations.
However, as First Nations people grow older and may require residential aged care to support their health, trauma can be reignited, especially if the residential aged care facility has links to organisations that participated in the Stolen Generations. These traumatic impacts are important to address and consider when providing health care, and Course Coordinator Diva Madan MACN says cultural safety is key to helping nurses recognise these.
“Cultural competency aims to create positive, respectful, meaningful, and effective relationships with individuals, regardless of their ethnic, racial, religious, geographic, and social backgrounds,” says Diva.
“Developing essential communication skills, such as active listening, reflecting, paraphrasing, and appropriately using open and closed questions helps understand specific needs, concerns, and wishes.”
As Course Coordinator for the Australian College of Nursing (ACN) Graduate Certificate in Aged Care Nursing, Diva encourages all nurses working in aged care to consider how communication styles can be utilised to provide safe care.
“In [the Graduate Certificate in Aged Care Nursing], the single units of study draw upon the student’s nursing experience and combine this experience with theory, current research, and best practice guidelines to enhance the student’s specialist knowledge, analysis abilities, and clinical decision‐making skills.”
“For example, single unit of study Therapeutic Communication allows students to reflect on their practice and develop their understanding of the culturally safe and respectful strategies used to provide person-centred care, ensure safety and shared decision-making in health care.”
“Another example is the Aged Care Transition to Practice Program (ACTTP), which supports participants and mentors who identify as First Nations or other backgrounds to increase their knowledge of First Nations Cultural Safety.”
Find out more about the Graduate Certificate in Aged Care Nursing
Learn more about NAIDOC Week
#NAIDOC2023 #culturalsafety
Diva Madan
Diva coordinates ACN’s Graduate Certificate in Aged Care Nursing and Aged Care Transition to Practice Program. Diva supports new graduates by improving their knowledge, skills, abilities, and competence to become the clinical and professional leaders required for the aged care industry. Diva possesses over 15 years of experience in geriatric health, aged care, infection prevention and control and public health, with extensive expertise in mentoring new nurse graduates. Diva truly enjoys going beyond the essential elements of the curriculum, preparing nurses to be creative, curious and critical thinkers.
