Nurse says she won’t rest until Indigenous patients ‘actually feel safe’ seeking health care – CBC

Sep 28, 2023

B.C. still faces uphill battle against racism in health care, says Tania Dick

This story is part of a series examining systemic discrimination against Indigenous patients within the nursing profession in B.C. Read Part 1 and Part 2 in the series.

Tania Dick says the racist comments began at the very start of her career, while she was still attending nursing school in Metro Vancouver.

“I was in year three and doing a practicum on the floor and one of the faculty told me that I didn’t belong there. I needed to go back to my people,” the Dzawada̱ʼenux̱w nurse told CBC News.

“The message was loud and clear — being told that I didn’t belong in the profession and I just needed to go back to my reserve.”

Today, Dick is the director for cultural safety and humility and clinical practice for the B.C. Ministry of Health. But she said the last 18 years of her career have shown her how much work is needed to eliminate anti-Indigenous racism from the nursing profession and the medical system at large.

Read More: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/bc-tania-dick-anti-indigenous-nursing-racism-1.6970842