Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  For the most part, what I've heard across the province is that wage parity is huge. Band-hired nurses are paid significantly less than a unionized nurse who works within the health authorities, or a provincial nurse—up to 20% less, sometimes 30%. Also, on job safety, quite ofte

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Our association has not directly created those. There are a lot of modules throughout B.C. Most of the health authorities have mandated that nurses take the cultural competency training. A lot of the community reserves I've visited have the same sort of policies created and set i

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I personally have always advocated for the regulatory body, the people who give us our licences. It's part of our licensing requirement, when we sign off as self-regulating, that we be culturally competent, but that's not enforced. In some cases it doesn't occur.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. All of them were. They have done really well. In terms of programs, I think Loon River talked about how they create their diabetic program from their community needs and get that information from them. I see that more and more as I travel around. When programs came in an

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It is a huge challenge, because in the tribal council I exist under, the reserves are geographically in very different places. As I think someone said, home is home. If I'm in Kingcome, that is home. If I'm in Alert Bay, it's a little bit different. If I'm in Port McNeill, it's w

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's a complex issue, particularly looking at it through that reconciliation lens, with the trauma that we carry as indigenous people in those generations right now, the residential school survivors. It is so desperately needed because from palliative care to chronic dise

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Hi, Rachel.

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  It's been an interesting process watching Jordan's principle roll out. Working within a system that really didn't understand, it has made our thought process change about that access piece. I think overall across society, when it comes to the disparities in indigenous health, an

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I've been a nurse for 13 years now. My mother was a nurse as well. I think in the 13 years I've been practising, the jurisdictional issues have been there. They're not as bad as when I first started, and in defence of the First Nations Health Authority, that whole transformation

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think that from a policy perspective the barrier is still there, but we as nurses are bending the rules. We are adjusting ourselves. We have a conversation at the table, “Oh, she's on reserve? Oh, she's off reserve?”, and we come through another door. We just get creative with

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm hoping so. I'm definitely hoping that they can be a big part of this conversation as well, because I think the rest of the provinces and territories are looking to this rolling out and are not wanting to recreate the wheel but to get it right the first time. They want to help

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I think it's the composition of the teams we have. When we look at FNIHB or FNHA, the federal health providers for the communities, I think those systems have not changed enough to utilize the full scope of all nursing designations or other interprofessional individuals. I don't

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Yes. One of the truth and reconciliation recommendations is for more indigenous nurses and increasing numbers and capacity of health providers. If we don't have a system set up to protect them from those experiences, we're setting them up for failure. We're setting them up to be

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  I'm going to give you one quick story. I've been advocating for my hospital to have traditional food in the long-term care facility. I just spoke with the national dietitians. They don't even allow us to bring in salmon, elk meat, or anything. You have to follow their policy. Our

Indigenous and Northern Affairs committee  Okay. I'll just shut it off there.