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“We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care

BACKGROUND: Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) are core providers of primary health care (PHC) for First Nations peoples in Australia. However, the national AHW workforce is aging and in short supply. There is a poor understanding of the factors contributing to this attrition from the perspectives of...

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Autores principales: Jeyakumar, Ragavi, Patel, Bindu, Coombes, Julieann, Madden, Ty, Joshi, Rohina
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9893014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36743189
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1010301
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author Jeyakumar, Ragavi
Patel, Bindu
Coombes, Julieann
Madden, Ty
Joshi, Rohina
author_facet Jeyakumar, Ragavi
Patel, Bindu
Coombes, Julieann
Madden, Ty
Joshi, Rohina
author_sort Jeyakumar, Ragavi
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) are core providers of primary health care (PHC) for First Nations peoples in Australia. However, the national AHW workforce is aging and in short supply. There is a poor understanding of the factors contributing to this attrition from the perspectives of AHWs themselves. This study aimed to systematically explore the current functioning and sustainability of AHWs in NSW PHC by amplifying AHW voices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was co-designed with three Aboriginal health services in NSW. It included a literature review exploring the role of AHWs in NSW, and yarns with AHWs and their supervisors at participating services. Yarning is an Indigenous approach to knowledge generation centered upon storytelling. The yarns were guided by the USAID-developed Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix. Yarn transcripts were analyzed using cyclical thematic analysis to identify key facilitators and challenges for AHW practice. RESULTS: The yarns highlighted five categories of change that are required to ensure AHW sustainability: community connection, recognition, value, support, and an inclusive health system. The yarns revealed that there are both service- and system-level factors influencing each of these categories of change. CONCLUSIONS: The lived experiences of AHWs in NSW emphasize five key categories of change that are required to ensure workforce sustainability. It is evident that a system-wide paradigm shift to better include holistic approaches to health is necessary to truly ensure sustainability. Co-designing similar studies with ACCHOs across NSW can help inform this change.
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spelling pubmed-98930142023-02-03 “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care Jeyakumar, Ragavi Patel, Bindu Coombes, Julieann Madden, Ty Joshi, Rohina Front Public Health Public Health BACKGROUND: Aboriginal Health Workers (AHWs) are core providers of primary health care (PHC) for First Nations peoples in Australia. However, the national AHW workforce is aging and in short supply. There is a poor understanding of the factors contributing to this attrition from the perspectives of AHWs themselves. This study aimed to systematically explore the current functioning and sustainability of AHWs in NSW PHC by amplifying AHW voices. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This study was co-designed with three Aboriginal health services in NSW. It included a literature review exploring the role of AHWs in NSW, and yarns with AHWs and their supervisors at participating services. Yarning is an Indigenous approach to knowledge generation centered upon storytelling. The yarns were guided by the USAID-developed Community Health Worker Assessment and Improvement Matrix. Yarn transcripts were analyzed using cyclical thematic analysis to identify key facilitators and challenges for AHW practice. RESULTS: The yarns highlighted five categories of change that are required to ensure AHW sustainability: community connection, recognition, value, support, and an inclusive health system. The yarns revealed that there are both service- and system-level factors influencing each of these categories of change. CONCLUSIONS: The lived experiences of AHWs in NSW emphasize five key categories of change that are required to ensure workforce sustainability. It is evident that a system-wide paradigm shift to better include holistic approaches to health is necessary to truly ensure sustainability. Co-designing similar studies with ACCHOs across NSW can help inform this change. Frontiers Media S.A. 2023-01-19 /pmc/articles/PMC9893014/ /pubmed/36743189 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1010301 Text en Copyright © 2023 Jeyakumar, Patel, Coombes, Madden and Joshi. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Public Health
Jeyakumar, Ragavi
Patel, Bindu
Coombes, Julieann
Madden, Ty
Joshi, Rohina
“We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title_full “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title_fullStr “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title_full_unstemmed “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title_short “We're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: Exploring the role of Aboriginal Health Workers in primary health care
title_sort “we're on the ground, we know what needs to be done”: exploring the role of aboriginal health workers in primary health care
topic Public Health
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9893014/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36743189
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2022.1010301
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