Factors shaping Aboriginal nursing students’ experiences

SummaryMotivated by a shortage of Aboriginal nurses and recurring difficulties in recruitment and retention of Aboriginal peoples in nursing education, a critical ethnography was conducted to examine the experiences of undergraduate Aboriginal nursing students in two Canadian schools of nursing. We conducted audiotaped interviews with Aboriginal nursing students (n = 31), Aboriginal nurses (n = 5), nursing faculty members (n = 24), and individuals who were identified as knowledgeable about the context that might shape the experiences (n = 16). Other data sources included reflexive and descriptive fieldnotes from 200 h of fieldwork in classroom and laboratory practice sessions and 135 texts from the participating schools. Nursing textbooks, course syllabi, policies, procedures, clinical evaluation forms and websites were randomly selected and analyzed to explicate how texts shaped the students’ experiences. In this paper, we discuss the findings of the study and briefly share our recommendations.