Exploring cultural care: the development of culturally competent nurse practitioners for British Columbia's First Nations communities

Aboriginal Canadians have historically suffered from barriers to health and healthcare. Racialism, colonialism, and culturalism continue to perpetuate the barriers to healthcare that enable health disparities between aboriginal and non-aboriginal Canadians. Cultural competency is recognized as a strategy to ameliorate the effects of health inequities that exist for First Nations populations. Moreover, nurse practitioners are currently emerging as primary care providers for marginalized and underserved populations of First Nations in British Columbia and are professionally required to provide culturally competent and culturally safe healthcare. This project asks what culturally competent interventions can be used by nurse practitioners to mitigate health disparities experienced by First Nations communities in Northern British Columbia, and finds that nurse practitioners must rely on expert opinion, including the views of First Nations patients and the professional standards. --Leaf ii.