the value of developing relationships with rongoa practitioners
Inspiration for proposal
Extended care paramedics have a unique opportunity to make a big difference within the region they reside. Their longer consultations in the intimate setting of the patient's home lays a foundation for building trusting relationships with the patient and their family thus making extended care / urgent community care paramedics an important element of primary health care in New Zealand.
Familiarity with patients’ cultural heritage has been shown to be associated with improved patient care, thus rendering cultural competence essential for high quality healthcare. Establishing relationships is the foundation of working with Māori in a culturally responsive way. This facilitates the building of rapport, good communication and Māori-centred clinical practice. Good relationships between paramedics and Māori patients also provide a platform for education initiatives with patients about self-management of their health.
Familiarity with patients’ cultural heritage has been shown to be associated with improved patient care, thus rendering cultural competence essential for high quality healthcare. Establishing relationships is the foundation of working with Māori in a culturally responsive way. This facilitates the building of rapport, good communication and Māori-centred clinical practice. Good relationships between paramedics and Māori patients also provide a platform for education initiatives with patients about self-management of their health.
Recommended initiatives for ambulance services and extended care paramedics
Short Term goals
- Become familiar with rongoa practitioners in your region (see clinics / practitioners)
- Ambulance services to grant time to extended care paramedics who can connect with local Maori
- Foster meaningful relationships with rongoa practitioners in your area and determine how providers of traditional medicine can be used to stem the deterioration of Maori health
- Develop relationships with local maraes and iwi - offer and schedule first aid and CPR courses to local Maraes
- Inform leaders of rongoa and local Maori organisations about the importance of educating their people in the area of improving long term health
- Develop and provide culturally appropriate information presentations (particularly around the areas of cardiovascular health and diabetes) that are consistent with Maori values
- Develop resources such as brochures for extended care paramedics to provide to patients, informing consumers of scheduled presentations and people of interest in their area (such as rongoa practitioners) they may find valuable
- Together with rongoa practitioners, develop a lifestyle framework for improved Maori health (based around healthy eating, exercise and other lifestyle factors) that is easy for the public to implement and which healers themselves will ultimately be responsible for delivering.
Benefits
- Maori advancement toward self-determined, improved lifestyle and health prospects for future generations
- Recognition of the role rongoa Maori has to play in this
- Enhanced relationships between Maori population and ambulance services
- Increased demand of authentic rongoa services via recommendation from paramedics and the ambulance service
- Long-term sustainability of traditional Maori healing practices by demonstrating its effectiveness in addressing contemporary health problems
- Continued development of processes and mechanisms to integrate traditional healing services with the health system
- Long term decrease load on the public health system
- "Cultural tailoring" to help ease financial (e.g., cost) and logistical (e.g., transportation) barriers by providing in-house education of preventative measures of healthcare