Inuit nurses treating Inuit: tomorrow’s reality

IQALUIT —The idea that Inuit nurses will one day treat Inuit patients in Inuktitut is no longer just a dream.

That’s because Nunavut Arctic College in Iqaluit is now helping Inuit nurses train in Nunavut, removing the obstacle of having to move to the South.

And after a short visit with Nunavut’s first student nurses, it’s possible to see Inuit treating Inuit as tomorrow’s reality.

“It’s been my lifelong dream since I was little, seeing the nurses, and here I am in this program,” says Martha Nowdlak of Pangnirtung.

Nowdlak is a first-year nursing student. She and her fellow students, Napatchie Kolola and Lily Amagoalik of Kimmirut, began their nursing studies in the fall of 2000.

They joined two other students who were already into the first year of the nursing program, Asenath Idlout of Pond Inlet and Julia Perkins of Iqaluit.

Asenath and Julia are the only ones out of a first-year class of seven students who were able to tough out the first year of nursing studies, the first time that a full-blown nursing program has ever been offered at the college.

“It’s pretty challenging,” Julia says. “But once you achieve something, it’s really rewarding.”

The student nurses all agree that it’s hard work. They have to read university-level texts in English, write in English, do research in English, and, at the same time try to balance the requirements of their families and courses.

“It’s hard if you don’t do your work,” Lily admits.

The two second-year students take some courses on their own, such as chemisty or pharmacology, although the whole group does take other courses together, such as human development.

In one recent class, they learned about what to expect from toddlers. Instructor Pat Gillis explained that raising toddlers can be enormously trying for parents, even though their children are excited by testing out new abilities.

Gillis suggests looking at this stage of development from the child’s point of view, too, so that later on, as nurses, they’ll be able to help parents better cope with anger and frustration.

“The knowledge of growth and development can go a long way in preventing the abuse, physical and emotional, of children,” Gillis says. “Your job is not to fix children, but to keep people healthy. Our focus is not disease.”

Gillis says the most important thing is to help parents feel good about their children and themselves, and to be in control.

During one class, Gillis solicits lots of comments from the group and tries to relate their personal experiences and comments to the Southern-oriented material. She encourages them to put this information into context and think about it.

“By next year this will be in here,” says Gillis as she points to her head. “And you have developed your own atttitudes and feelings.’

This course is just a very small part of the entire nursing program, which is four years long.

When these aspiring nurses finish their courses, they will have met all the requirements for a Bachelor of Science, university-level degree in nursing.

Students may also decide to leave after three years with a Diploma in Nursing. Those who hold the B.Sc. will be able to work on their own in nursing stations, while those with diplomas will work under supervision within hospitals.

During the program, they’ll take courses with names like “Human Needs in Health,” “Caring for Elders,” “Medical Terminology,” “Inuit Health Practice” and “Health Promotions.”

At the college, there’s even a mock hospital ward set up in one classroom where they practice patient care. Every year they’ll also have on-the-job work practicums and job shadowing.

So far, the student nurses have chosen to work at the Baffin Regional Hospital.

To be admitted to the nursing program, applicants must be 18 or older, read, write and speak Inuktitut or Inuinnaqtun, and have either a Grade 12 diploma with math, english, and science, or have successfully completed a Health Careers Access Year program.

The need for qualified Inuit nurses in the territory is self-evident. In Nunavut there are about 150 nurses and none of them are Inuit — yet.

Recruiting 10 more new students next year is the goal of the nursing program’s coordinator, Anita Ludlow.

Nunavut Arctic College’s nursing program, organized in partnership with Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, was supposed to start in September 1998.

But the $400,000 per year program was axed when it turned out there would be no training money coming from the federal government’s Nunavut Unified Human Resources Development strategy. Its training funds were directed to programs to prepare workers for other careers in the Nunavut government.

As a result, Nunavut Arctic College’s nursing program didn’t start until 2000, when Health Minister Ed Picco was able to make it a priority.

Those enrolled in the course say they would welcome others to join them from other communities in Nunavut and even from Nunavik, where Inuit nursing students must study in southern Quebec.

They say the most important factor in succeeding in the program is to want to be a nurse.

“If we can do it, you can do it,” Julia said.

Nunavut Arctic College is holding an open house in Iqaluit on Feb. 16 where the nursing students will be on hand to answer questions about the program. Arctic College learning centres in other communities will also have open houses to spread information about the program.

To get a brochure on the Arctic College nursing program, you can call the program coordinator at 1-867-979-7200, the Arctic College registrar at 1-867-979-7222 or contact the college by e-mail at nunatta@nac.nu.ca.