Nicole Arseneau

Indigenous peoples in Canada bear a disproportionate burden of disease and poorer health outcomes as compared to non-Indigenous populations within Canada. The University of Alberta Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry recently introduced a longitudinal and integrated undergraduate Indigenous Health curriculum designed to build student capacity to understand the historical manifestations of the current health “crisis” among Indigenous peoples, and to develop their skills and ability to work safely and respectfully with Indigenous peoples in health care settings. We aim to explore what aspects of the limited UGME curriculum in Indigenous health supported students as they transitioned into clerkship and what elements do students perceive could be strengthened so they can better meet the needs of Indigenous peoples in ways that are culturally safe, trauma-informed, anti-racist, and that interrupt and displace the normalization of racism in respect of Indigenous peoples in the health care system. In order to explore this, we will conduct individual interviews with medical students in their third year of medical school (the first year with sustained clinical experiences, as opposed to primarily classroom experiences in the first two years). Participants will be recruited over the course of approximately 13-15 months through emails or face-to-face talks to participate in interviews. The initial interviews will be approximately an hour long, and each interview transcript will be analyzed before proceeding to the next interview, to allow for adapting the interview guide to better suit the themes we’re uncovering. It’s estimated we’ll need about 13-15 participants to get rich data. Participants will be reinterviewed if they consent to further explore certain concepts. Once all the interviews have been analyzed and our core conclusions reached, we will conduct member checking (going back to one or two participants to ensure that our conclusions resonate with the people who provided their experiences).