Remote area nursing

Abstract:

This chapter will offer the reader an outline of the role of a remote area nurse, and of the key health issues facing people in very remote Australia, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It will also outline cultural adaptation, cultural safety/responsiveness framework that underlie remote nursing practice. This chapter offers the reader an outline of the role of a remote area nurse, and of the key health issues facing people in very remote Australia, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It outlines cultural adaptation, cultural safety/responsiveness framework that underlie remote nursing practice. Remote area nurses (RANs) have been around for more than one hundred years with the first bush nursing posts established in 1911. RANs, along with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Practitioners/Workers are the main health providers in very remote Australia. The key foundations of remote area nursing are cultural safety/responsiveness and Primary Health Care, the later described as an approach or philosophy that permeates the whole healthcare system. Cultural safety is a phrase originally coined by Maori nurses and nursing students who felt that they and their people were unsafe in the mainstream health system.