The Sami are the indigenous people of Norway. International conventions and Norwegian law safeguard their rights. This also applies to encounters with the health care services. Within the Sami community, there are individual and local differences with regard to language, culture, and industries. Health care providers must have knowledge about the influence of social, historical, and cultural factors on encounters between Sami individuals and health care services. The official Norwegian health care policy is to provide culturally appropriate health care services to the Sami population within the frames of the established health care services, rather than developing services specific to the Sami population.Health care services are used to the same extent by the Sami and the majority populations. However, the Sami are less satisfied with the services. There are no significant differences between the Sami and the majority populations with regard to health status and incidence of disease. However, literature emphasizes conceptions of health, disease, and treatment as different among the Sami. There are good reasons not to assume this to concern all Sami individuals. Literature emphasizes that the Sami communicate about health and illness in indirect manners and through the use of metaphors. Recent research nuance the prevailing conception that Sami speaking patients prefer to use the Sami language in encounters with health care services. Language preferences are individual and situational. The importance of relatives and traditions for self-help is emphasized in the literature. However, research suggests that more help from the public health care services is requested.Individual and collective experiences of assimilation and stigmatization may influence encounters with health care services. Research does not conclude that such experiences have an impact on self-reported health. The literature illustrates the complexity of the concept of Sami identity.Knowledge about Sami language and culture is important in encounters with persons with dementia. Little research has focused on the living situation for Sami persons with dementia, their relatives, and their interactions with public health care services. Recently, research projects focusing on these issues are initiated.Given the complexity of the Sami population, individual tailoring and local anchoring of initiatives are essential and necessary. METODE HELSE-OG OMSORGSTJENESTER TIL DEN SAMISKE BEFOLKNINGEN I NORGE EKSPERTGRUPPE OG INTERN FAGFELLEVURDERING Denne publikasjonen er forfattet av emneredaktør Bodil Hansen Blix, Senter for omsorgsforskning, nord. Den er kommentert av en oppnevnt ekspertgruppe for emnet Helse-og omsorgstjenester til den samiske befolkningen i Norge i Omsorgsbiblioteket. Gruppen består av: Tove Mentsen Ness, førsteamanuensis, Nord universitet, avdeling Nord-Trøndelag Kjellaug Hauan, universitetslektor, UiT Norges arktiske universitet, campus Tromsø Randi Nymo, førsteamanuensis, UiT Norges arktiske universitet, campus Narvik Ragnhild Nystad, fagu...

The history of the Norwegianization policy against the Sámi, the Indigenous people of Sápmi, (northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and northwest Russia) was about colonization, assimilation and discrimination from 1930 until 1980. Many Sámi lost their mother tongue and were disconnected from their culture and traditional ways of living, which resulted in historical trauma. Taking this into consideration, a nursing program with specific Sámi content was implemented in northern Sápmi four times since 1995. This article elaborates our experiences with developing programs and new national guidelines in Sámi nursing in Sápmi. We encourage more tertiary education institutions in Sápmi to offer Sámi nursing programs with the above focus and recommend admission requirements that do not prolong the linguistic discrimination of Sámi students. Today, all Norwegian universities and colleges can draw up curricula for nursing programs with the particular aim of focusing on Sámi issues in nursing programs.