An outreach worker says she is excited about a new online program designed to help doctors become more comfortable treating Aboriginal people suffering from HIV/AIDS.
The course in question is located on the website of the Canadian Aboriginal AIDS Network.
Its objective is to help doctors recognize diversity and become more culturally aware.
Researcher Renee Masching says the course will show doctors how to deal with language barriers, understand how different cultures deal with authority and generally become more comfortable treating their patients.
Masching hopes the medical profession will give it a try:
“Obviously, in one course, online, we’re not going to create cultural awareness in great depth. But it does give an introduction, it speaks to Inuit and Metis and First Nations context, it gives examples of cultural norms, and it begins to lay a foundation that doctors may find useful in terms of understanding where their patients are coming from.”
She adds the history of colonization and residential schools are just some of the factors that doctors should be mindful of when treating Aboriginal patients.