Academic staff perceptions of factors underlying program completion by Australian Indigenous nursing students

Roianne West, Kim Usher, Kim FOSTER, Lee Stewart

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)
49 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

An increase in the number of Indigenous health professionals is one way to help reduce the poor health outcomes of Australia’s Indigenous people. However, while Indigenous students are enrolling in Australian tertiary undergraduate nursing courses in increasing numbers, their completion rates remain lower than non-Indigenous students and many barriers hinder course completion. This critical interpretive qualitative study explores academic staff perceptions of factors enabling successful course completions by Indigenous nursing students from universities in Queensland, Australia. Content analysis of data revealed five themes: (a) Individual student characteristics; (b) Institutional structures, systems, and processes; (c) Relationships, connections, and partnerships; (d) Family and community knowledge, awareness, and understanding; and (e) Academics’ knowledge, awareness, and understanding. To increase the number of Indigenous nurses, strategies such as appointing Indigenous nursing academics; partnerships between nursing schools and Indigenous Education Support Units, and the implementation of tailored cross-cultural awareness programs for nurse academics are proposed.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)19-19
Number of pages1
JournalThe Qualitative Report
Volume19
Issue number12
Publication statusPublished - 24 Mar 2014
Externally publishedYes

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