Health care leader Tania Dick joins UBC as its first Indigenous nursing lead

Tania Dick
Credit: Kai Jacobson

Edited: July 5, 2022

Tania Dick, a member of Dzawada'enuxw First Nations of Kingcome Inlet and a renowned Indigenous health care leader, has joined UBC as its first ever Indigenous Nursing Lead.

The role was created at UBC Vancouver's School of Nursing to help guide work on reconciliation and prepare the next generation of nurses to uphold Indigenous Peoples' human rights and end racism in health care.

Q & A 

In this Q&A, Ms. Dick — a registered nurse in B.C. for more than 18 years with two degrees from UBC Vancouver's nursing program — discusses the work ahead and her vision for the future of Indigenous health care.

Why was this role created, and why now?

Indigenous people have traditionally not fared well in Canada's health care system, but having Indigenous nurses in the system can change that, by ensuring that patients receive informed, respectful care in a culturally safe environment.

Yet we have very few nurses who are Indigenous. When I was a master's student at UBC in 2010, there was just one other Indigenous student. At that time, no courses looked into Indigenous health and Indigenous nursing. There was not much understanding of what Indigenous nursing could and should look like. It was a difficult time. The numbers have improved somewhat — right now we have 11 Indigenous nursing students — but we need to do more to support Indigenous nurses.

Recognizing this need, several nursing faculty members and the director of the school of nursing at UBC worked very hard to create this role. My mandate is to help guide the faculty in supporting Indigenous nursing students who are just starting their practice and in creating more culturally competent and safe nurses overall — while increasing awareness of their own biases in the process.

As a nurse for more than 20 years and an Indigenous person, I know how challenging it can be out there. I have experienced the kind of racism on the job that some of these nurses will face.

How do you see your role shaping nursing education and health care in general?

I hope I can help increase the number of Indigenous students successfully graduating from the program. Right now, we have five undergraduate and five master's nursing students and one student in the PhD program. It makes me feel emotional knowing that the population of Indigenous nursing students is growing.

My role will also build on what we have learned from In Plain Sight — the recent provincial review of Indigenous-specific racism and discrimination in B.C. health care — the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's final report, and the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, among others. With the pathways and data from these reports, we're going to move forward to ensure every single student understands the reports and have their practice be influenced by it.

What needs to change in the way nursing students learn? 

I'm hoping that students will learn to flourish around this topic of Indigenous health. Students need to learn from a culturally safe and appropriate curriculum that is centred on cultural safety and humility. A new mandatory course that we developed for undergraduate nurses — NURS 353: Promoting the Health of Indigenous People — is an exciting step in the right direction.
 

Image
UBC Applied Science Nursing class
Credit: Kai Jacobson

In my experience, people in the field may not know how to support the Indigenous community in health care. So it's important that students can learn how to practice nursing in a healthy, positive way. That's how we're going to nurture strong nurses.


Learn More

Read UBC Nursing's inaugural Indigenous Nursing Lead for more information on Tania Dick's new role and accomplishments. 

This article originally appeared on UBC News.

Explore Equity, Diversity, Inclusion + Indigeneity in UBC Applied Science

Commit to creating a community where human rights are respected and equity is embedded in all areas of academic, work and campus life.

Learn more about Applied Science EDI.I
UBC Crest The official logo of the University of British Columbia. Arrow An arrow indicating direction. Arrow in Circle An arrow indicating direction. Caret An arrowhead indicating direction. E-commerce Cart A shopping cart. Time A clock. Chats Two speech clouds. Facebook The logo for the Facebook social media service. Social Media The globe is the default icon for a social media platform. TikTok The logo for the TikTok social media platform. Calendar Location Home A house in silhouette. Information The letter 'i' in a circle. Instagram The logo for the Instagram social media service. Linkedin The logo for the LinkedIn social media service. Location Pin A map location pin. Mail An envelope. Telephone An antique telephone. Play A media play button. Search A magnifying glass. Arrow indicating share action A directional arrow. Speech Bubble A speech bubble. Star An outline of a star. Twitter The logo for the Twitter social media service. Urgent Message An exclamation mark in a speech bubble. User A silhouette of a person. Vimeo The logo for the Vimeo video sharing service. Youtube The logo for the YouTube video sharing service. Future of work A logo for the Future of Work category. Inclusive leadership A logo for the Inclusive leadership category. Planetary health A logo for the Planetary health category. Solutions for people A logo for the Solutions for people category. Thriving cities A logo for the Thriving cities category. University for future A logo for the University for future category.