Providing equity-oriented care and services: Perspectives of primary care nurses working in Nunavik Inuit communities

Anne-Renée Delli Colli; Amélie Blanchet Garneau

doi:10.25071/2291-5796.160

Authors

Anne-Renée Delli Colli Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal https://orcid.org/0009-0008-2649-9029
Amélie Blanchet Garneau Associate professor, Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2512-8740

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.25071/2291-5796.160

Keywords:

Health Inequities, Primary care nursing, Decolonization, Northern healthcare, Indigenous

Abstract

Health inequities experienced by Indigenous Peoples are the consequence of unbalanced structural determinants of health, mainly due to systemic racism and colonialism. Primary care registered nurses face multiple challenges, including lacking resources to care for these communities and address health inequities. This study aimed to explore equity-oriented care and services from the perspectives of primary care registered nurses working in Nunavik (Northern Quebec, Canada) Inuit communities. We used a critical postcolonial perspective and an interpretive descriptive design. We conducted semi-structured interviews with ten participants and thematically analyzed the data collected. The results showed dynamic conceptualizations of equity-oriented care and services that shaped how participants see the northern colonial context, the healthcare accessibility, and the nursing care approach within Inuit communities. From these findings, we call for accountability measures like antiracist policies to promote transformational changes toward health equity.

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Author Biographies

Anne-Renée Delli Colli , Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal

Anne-Renée Delli Colli (MScN, RN.,) is a white settler woman of French and Italian descent. A clinical nurse since 2013, she has worked in emergencies and Inuit communities of Nunavik for several years. She draws on her personal and professional experience in her research interests. Since 2020, she has been involved with the Quebec Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing. She completed her master's degree in nursing at the Université de Montréal in 2022 and continued her involvement with the chair as a research coordinator. She has a deep desire to shed light on injustices and systemic racism and challenge policies that lead to health inequities.

Author detail

Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128 succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada

Amélie Blanchet Garneau , Associate professor, Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal

Amélie Blanchet Garneau (Ph.D., RN) is a white settler of French ancestry, an Associate professor at the Faculty of Nursing, Université de Montréal and the Quebec Indigenous Research Chair in Nursing funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. She is interested in critical theoretical perspectives regarding Indigenous-specific systemic racism in healthcare and the relevance of cultural safety in shifting clinical and organizational practices and policies toward fostering Indigenous health equity.

Author detail

Faculté des sciences infirmières, Université de Montréal, C.P. 6128 succ. Centre-Ville, Montréal, QC H3C 3J7, Canada

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