Academic Staff Perceptions of Factors Underlying Program Completion by Australian Indigenous Nursing Students

Title
Academic Staff Perceptions of Factors Underlying Program Completion by Australian Indigenous Nursing Students
Publication Date
2014
Author(s)
West, Roianne
Usher, Kim
( author )
OrcID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9686-5003
Email: kusher@une.edu.au
UNE Id une-id:kusher
Foster, Kim
Stewart, Lee
Type of document
Journal Article
Language
en
Entity Type
Publication
Publisher
Nova Southeastern University
Place of publication
United States of America
UNE publication id
une:17405
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.
Link
Citation
The Qualitative Report, v.19, p. 1-19
ISSN
2160-3715
1052-0147
Start page
1
End page
19

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