Why New Brunswick Needs More Indigenous Nursing Students Like Erika Powell Of UNB
Erika Powell, a University of New Brunswick (UNB) Master of Nursing student, was inspired by her mother to pursue research and work with Indigenous communities.
“The driving force for me is my mom,” says Powell. “She is a nurse who worked in Public Health with disadvantaged moms.”
“I am passionate about learning about my culture, which has developed into working with Indigenous communities, especially during the prenatal period, because I was exposed to the importance of accessible prenatal care so much with my mom.”
Powell who identifies as NunatuKavut (formerly called Labrador Métis) is one of a growing number of graduate and undergraduate nursing students and part of a concerted effort by UNB ‘s faculty of nursing to address the gap in New Brunswick’s healthcare system when it comes to equal representation in nursing.
Indigenous people make up 4 percent of the population, but only 2.4 percent of the province’s nurses come from that background. It’s a situation that Dr. Jason Hickey, UNB’s Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing, finds concerning and is actively addressing.
“It’s fairly common across the country,” says Hickey. “Indigenous nurses are underrepresented in almost all the provinces.”
Talking to Indigenous communities about their needs
Powell, who grew up in New Brunswick but has family ties to Labrador, is also a recipient of UNB’s first Indigenous Health Research Studentship in Nursing. She is taking a different approach to her research than most graduate students by having community-based discussions with Indigenous people to discover the areas of need before presenting a research plan for university approval.
“[I want to] see what the community wants before I make a research plan,” says Powell. “The common themes that I’ve heard is that cultural practices and cultural teachings aren’t really supported in mainstream prenatal care.”
As a UNB nursing student, Powell has seen firsthand how the university takes Indigenous knowledge and practices into consideration. As an undergraduate, her class participated in blanket exercises, smudges, and visited the First Nation’s community of St. Mary’s for a sweat lodge ceremony and to make medicine bags as part of her clinical practicums.
“I’ve had quite a few opportunities to learn about traditional practices and health and healing,” she says, “ and I’m hopeful that more integration of traditional practices and knowledge will come.”
Powell witnessed UNB’s commitment to Indigenous voices when she was a teaching assistant for the course, “Indigenous Perspectives on Health and Wellness”, which is now mandatory for all nursing students.
“The students were very open and receptive to different ideas they maybe hadn’t heard about before, and were willing to advocate for Indigenous patients, nurses, and communities in general,” says Powell.
Committed to community-based nursing care
Even though she is a full-time graduate student, Powell is already having an impact on the Indigenous community. She currently works with Under One Sky Friendship Centre within the Sakələməlsowakən Family Success Program, where she’s putting her knowledge to use.
As an Indigenous nurse, her goal is to see more representation in the healthcare system.
Having representation at all levels of the healthcare system is really important; having those Indigenous professionals and Elders available to make recommendations and decisions at administrative levels, and to offer traditional medicines and ways of healing at direct-patient-care-levels.”
Dr. Hickey is inspired by the community-based values shown by his Indigenous students. One of his graduate students is currently an executive director of the mental wellness team serving five Mi’kmaq communities in New Brunswick. The same student is also developing a research plan to learn from people who have persevered through intergenerational trauma, so that knowledge can help others.
“With the graduate students, one thing I find very inspiring is the deep connection between the research that they are doing and their own personal responsibilities to their communities,” says Dr. Hickey.
“When I did my graduate studies, I chose something that was interesting to me, but I didn’t really think about what kind of impacts or responsibilities that meant I had. But the Indigenous graduate students that I’ve supervised feel a really strong responsibility to help their communities.”
Although UNB has done a lot already to incorporate Indigenous knowledge and perspectives into its nursing program, Dr. Hickey says more is on the way.
“We’re gathering information to conceptualize what Indigenous nursing and knowledge actually is,” said Hickey. “I think it’s more than just Indigenous people being nurses. There’s actually a whole set of Indigenous knowledge that relates to helping people heal.”
This story was sponsored by the University of New Brunswick.