An investigating of the significance of a community led, wellness focused, land based field school that has been held in two remote First Nations communities for over ten years. The field school is a seven-day learning experience offered in partnership between the Wuikinuxv and Dzawada’enuxw Nations on the Central Coast of British Columbia and NIC Nursing program.
Project Dates: June 2017 – December 2018
Funding Amount: $2,454
"I think the biggest thing nurses and community members learn is self-awareness, about conflicts in values and how to build relationships and understanding. Telling stories is affirming for people. The things nurses learn here is not just about Indigenous People but it impacts how they nurse with all people – it is good for everyone. We do the work together and everyone benefits – it is reciprocal – we all tell stories and we all learn." - Community participant
Project Summary
The investigation used Indigenous methodology to gather information during the field school experiences. Information was gathered through individual and group conversations with the main question being: What is significant about the field school experience for the participants and stake holders that can be useful for further curricular development? The main findings included information about the experiences of transformational learning for student participants affecting their values and practice; increased trust with health providers for community members generally and increased opportunities for recruitment of culturally effective nurses to work in the remote communities specifically.
Research Team
Joanna Fraser, RN BSN MCE EdD
Researcher
Karen Mason
Co-researcher
Partners
Project Outcomes
This research helped us to understand the importance of and improve on the field school experiences, especially in the following areas:
- Importance of the Elder and the relationship of the Elder to the community
- Challenges related to the online portion of the course and logistics leading up to the field school
- Logistics during the field school especially the balance of structured and unstructured parts of the course
- Experiences of feelings of empowerment through developing reciprocal relationships between nursing participants and community members
- Transformational changes in the participants and the promotion of changes in the system
- The importance of focusing on community wellness and strengths
- The importance of time and support for reflection in learning and learning through relationships
This project also informed the successful grant application to expand the field school as an immersion learning experience for first year students and with Nuu-chah-nulth communities.