The Canadian medical education system is to increase curricula on Indigenous
health as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Call to Action
#24; medical schools need instructors with cultural competency. As most
instructors are non-Indigenous Medical Educators (NIMEs), medical educators
urgently need to understand what it means to be culturally competent within
Indigenous health and engage with the TRC Calls to Action #24, which states: “We
call upon medical and nursing schools in Canada to require all students to take a
course dealing with Aboriginal health issues... This will require skills-based training
in intercultural competency, conflict resolution, human rights, and anti-racism (TRC,
2015, 3).” This research examines what constitutes competency in teaching
Indigenous health curricula in medical education.
Using critical race theory for analysis, three areas are explored: 1. understanding
competency; 2. the role of Indigenous health in medicine; and 3. educator and
learner perspectives. One-to-one interviews were conducted with Indigenous
learners and medical educators, frontline non-Indigenous medical educators and
senior leadership from across Canada’s medical schools. The data allowed for a
robust understanding of what competency to teach Indigenous health means when
the participants in systems of Indigenous health curricula share their views on
NIMEs and account for how Indigenous and Western knowledge often difer in
conceptualization and expression.
The analysis provided recommendations for NIME training and a snapshot of NIME
professional competencies from their perspectives and those of people receiving
their teaching. From this research, an initial framework of ethical standards for the
teaching of Indigenous health was developed. This framework can be instrumental
in developing territorial-based standards between medical schools and local
Indigenous communities in which medical schools are situated. It can also support
medicine’s regulatory, policy, and academic bodies of medicine in addressing the
TRC Call to Action #24. / Dissertation / Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) / The Canadian medical education system is to increase curricula on Indigenous
health as outlined in the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s (TRC) Calls to
Action; medical schools need instructors with cultural competency. Non-Indigenous
medical educators (NIMEs) urgently need to understand what it means to be
culturally competent in Indigenous health. This research examined what constitutes
competency in teaching Indigenous health curricula in medical education.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:mcmaster.ca/oai:macsphere.mcmaster.ca:11375/30394 |
| Date | January 2024 |
| Creators | Soucy, Danielle N. |
| Contributors | Gabel, Chelsea, Health and Aging |
| Source Sets | McMaster University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
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