Clinical Placements with Older People
University of Canberra
Faculty of Health
Centre for Ageing Research and Translation (CARAT)
The CPOP Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student nurse mentoring partnership program is designed to create a supportive partnership where an experienced person (the mentor) shares their knowledge, skills, and advice with a less experienced person (the mentee) to help them grow and develop personally or professionally.
The program is flexible and tailored to each student’s communication style and support needs, and guided by the Mentor’s cultural knowledge, professional experience, and personal judgement. The CPOP program aims to approach learning with Cultural Humility in order to create and/or improve Culturally Safe environments.
Facets of this approach are:
- Consultation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Elders and Knowledge Holders
- All clinical facilitators complete the Murra Mullangari Introduction to Cultural Safety course by the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM) before being able to work with students
- CPOP team participation in the Leaders in Indigenous Nursing and Midwifery Education Network (LINMEN)
- Creating awareness via each University partner Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander student centres
- Actively seeking partnerships with placement providers that serve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
What can mentoring include?
Who can be a mentee?
Who are the mentors?
How to participate?
'Yulang'
by Chrystale Langford - Wiradjuri woman, artist and UC nursing alumni
'Yulang', the Wiradjuri word for ‘ripple’
We're hoping to send out ripples that continuously create a positive effect.
With one person setting off ripples with evidenced based practice and care it can then work its way through hospitals, residential facilities and wherever gerontological care occurs.
The four handprints are from Professor Tom Calma AO (Kungarakan Elder, Chairperson of the ‘Close the Gap’ Steering Committee 2006, UC Chancellor 2014 – 2023), Professor Kasia Bail (CPOP Academic lead), Professor Victoria Traynor (University of the Sunshine Coast CPOP lead, who with Prof Bail founded the Gerontological Alliance of Nurses Australia - GANA), and Chrystale Langford (Wiradjuri woman, artist, UC nursing alumni and GANA member).
The handprints show connection and unity between nursing, and bringing together the connection behind the scenes, in front of the scenes and the future that is to become.
The bottom panels represent five different stages in our lives.
The first panel represents the time when our mothers are pregnant with us, and when we are connected to our ancestors. It is our waters of where we are within our mothers, listening to the sounds of nature and connecting to society.
The second panel is our community for after we are born, for our first beginnings of life and how we're taught. We have community and understanding and supports going through there.
Our third panel where Uncle Tom has contributed his handprint to represents the time in our lives when we decide to leave the nest and what we contribute towards our community and help move forth.
Our fourth panel is about a time of rest where we've done what we feel we needed to, and now have decided this is our time to connect and educate those that are coming through. We help others understand what has been in our life path and hopefully gain other people to join and carry on, to bring more positive outcomes to all.
The fifth panel is our ending panel where our cycle has completed. We have people that may not be around us all the time but are there and help us in our final stages for when we go back to our ancestors.
