I am currently on my rural placement and part of the allied health team at the hospital is an Aboriginal Health Worker. This man's role is to assist Aboriginal patients adjust to being in hospital, promote health awareness in this population and assist staff with any challenges which may arise when dealing with Aboriginal patients. So far I have found this person to be a great resource, in terms of seeking advice in regards to patients of Indigenous decent and basically just learning from him more about the beliefs and culture of Aboriginal Australians. He also has a great sense of humour and is able to relieve tension which sometimes arises in heated discussions during meetings.
One of my supervisor's patients, who I saw with her on my first day, is an Aboriginal man aged 23, who developed a severly infected knee joint after being speared during tribal punishment. As a non-Indigenous Australian, this seemed quite shocking to me; yet the patient wasn't concerned and had a very relaxed view on the event. After speaking to the Aboriginal Health Worker I learnt that this is a normal part of many Aboriginal tribes and the patient would have known and accepted that this is the consequence of his actions.
When sharing with this man about how valueable his help had been to me during prac, he was suprised to find out I hadn't accessed an Aboriginal Health Worker during my metropolitan practicals? I know there is a group of Aboriginal Health Workers at RPH but I haven't come across them during Allied Health meetings previously.
Has anyone had any experiences with Aboriginal Health Workers in their practicals; particularly metro ones?
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I have never had experiences with any of them. Even though I have had a few aboringinal patients who are from rural WA in metro area. Now I'm having rural prac in Geraldton in outpatient and community exercises, but still haven't spoke to one or heard of one. However, I have chatted to one of my patients who is a social worker, seems that she deals with a lot of aboringinals too. Moreover, in Geraldton there is a regional aboringinal health centre, which I believe most of indigenious patients are treated in. However I do wish I have more contact with staff with knowledge of indigenous culture, which will assist me a great deal when treating indigenous patients.
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