Building decolonial nursing curricula to address disparities in Indigenous women's maternal health

• Published in: Nursing outlook 2024-11, Vol.72 (6), p.102264, Article 102264
• Main Authors: Thomas, Nicole A., Ersig, Anne L., Wispelwey, Bram, Owen, Brenda, Bratzke, Lisa C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Colonialism; Curriculum; Decoloniality; Education, Nursing - organization & administration; Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; Female; Health Status Disparities; Healthcare Disparities; Humans; Indigenous Peoples - psychology; Maternal Health; Nursing curricula; Women's Health
• ISSN: 0029-6554; 1528-3968; 1528-3968
• DOI: 10.1016/j.outlook.2024.102264

Social and health inequities and inequalities are rising all over the world (Chinn & Falk-Rafael, 2018; McGibbon et al., 2014; Smtih, 2012). Nursing students should therefore be educated to understand the multifaceted factors creating health inequities and the degree to which non-biological elements can be embodied and become biological (e.g., environmental stress leading to changes in health.). We suggest pathways to decolonize nursing curricula and pedagogy through decentering the colonial knowledge structures and practices that harm Indigenous health and wellbeing. This discursive analysis utilizes decolonial theory and postcolonial feminism. Colonization, broadly speaking, characterizes the Eurocentric project to “civilize” the rest of the world utilizing various forms of violence (McGibbon et. al., 2014). The persistent and ongoing reproduction and recurrence of colonialism, enacting cycles of disenfranchisement and oppression, creates significant inequities in physical, mental, and emotional health and well-being for historically marginalized groups of people (Smith, 2012). The need for innovative undergraduate nursing curricula reform is apparent. The lack of nursing courses highlighting the effects of colonization, environmental justice, upstream structural and social determinants of health, globalization, and state violence must be addressed. Because gaps in nursing curricula and outdated teaching practices may support persistent inequities, scholars and students have advocated for decolonization of nursing curricula (Chinn & Falk-Rafael, 2018; McGibbon et al., 2014; Smtih, 2012). •Nursing curricula is based solely in a western pedagogical framework.•Tools are available to develop and operationalize decolonial and Indigenized nursing curricula.•Incorporating decolonial methods will enable nurses to advance transformational social change.