It takes a community to build a family.

As a nursing student that works clinical hours in several hospitals on Cape Breton Island,  I have encountered many different patients and families of several cultures. Just purely on personal observation, I have noticed that families of indigenous  descent tend to have more visitors at the bedside. Upon acknowledging this observation, I had decided to dig a little deeper. I had started researching online, which didn’t seem to bring up any pertinent information. Then I decided that I would interview a few indigenous people on the subject.  A close friend and fellow colleague was completely open to answering my questions on the subject. We started off our interview by defining family .

According to Merriam-Webster,2014, family is defined as a family unit. The family unit consisted of parents and their children. This was familiar to me due to my upbringing. However, my colleague’s response was so different.  She had defined family as the community. Upon expansion she had said that the community is always there to support one another in times of need. A common quote used today suggests that it takes a community to raise a child. My colleague had said that it takes a community to build a family. Indigenous peoples have been living this way forever. The community is open for its members, and each member of the community is interconnected with each other.

As a Caucasian female, I cant say that I have experienced this. The only time that many people tend to visit their loved one in hospital, tends to be when their family member is extremely ill or dying.  Indigenous people in the community will visit patients in the hospital as a sign of respect or support. It would be  a significant support to ill patients , knowing that their community is praying and cheering for them to get healthy again. Really it is something that is really appropriate and comfortable.

It is essential that health care workers be open to having many visitors by the bedside at a time, so long as it is deemed appropriate by the patient for each individual case.It is important that we respect indigenous beliefs and compliment our values and traditions to provide the best of care.Family and community is a form of medicine and should focused in our client based plan of care.

Nurses are paid well to care. It is part of our code of ethics to be culturally competent, Its about time we  advocate and support our indigenous clients through the ethical, competent and compassionate care.