Background Attention to culture and its impact on health care can improve the quality of care given, add to our understanding of health care among culturally diverse populations, and encourage a more holistic approach to health care within general care. Connection to culture is important to Aboriginal peoples, and integrating Aboriginal culture into general care in residential aged care facilities may contribute to improving care delivery and outcomes for residents. The literature to date revealed a lack of understanding of the capacity of residential aged care and the health practices of carers in relation to providing cultural care for Aboriginal people. This study aimed to explore how cultural care needs are maintained for Aboriginal residents from their own and their carers’ perspectives. Methods Applying an Aboriginal centered research method, an Interpretive Descriptive Approach was used as a theoretical framework to explore data in this study. Semi structured audio-recorded interviews were conducted. An additional file provides a complete description of the interview questions used as a guide for the study [see Additional file 1 ]. Three Residential Aged Care Centres, in South Australia were used i.e., two rural from centres and one urban metropolitan centre. Seven Aboriginal residents and 19 carers participated in interviews. Data was transcribed and an interpretive analysis was employed to code the transcribed data for themes and sub-themes. The study was guided by an Aboriginal community advisory group with an aim to work under the principle of reciprocity; giving back to the communities, participants and those where the research results may have been relevant. Results Three themes emerged from the views of the residents and carers: (i) lack of resources and funding; (ii) care practice; and (iii) marginalisation of Aboriginal culture within aged care facilities. Conclusion The findings suggest that carers and residents believe cultural inclusion in general care practices may enrich Aboriginal residents’ daily life, health and well-being in residential aged care facilities. This study may provide carers, aged care centre managers and policy makers with information on the need of resources, funding, organised care plan and management, and cultural competency of carers to be considered to improve Aboriginal aged care protocols for integrating cultural care into practice. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12913-019-4322-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Background: Aboriginal women and their infants experience significant disadvantage in health outcomes compared to their non-Aboriginal counterparts. Access to timely, effective and appropriate maternal and child healthcare can contribute to reducing these existing health disparities. However, accessing mainstream healthcare services often results in high levels of fear and anxiety, and low attendance at subsequent appointments among Aboriginal women, due to inefficient communication, poor service coordination and a lack of continuity of care. Methods: This integrative literature review sought to explore factors that contribute to continuity of care and consider service features that contribute to positive care experiences and satisfaction with care received by Aboriginal women and their infants. In total, 28 studies were included in the review and were thematically analysed using Braun and Clarke's six steps of thematic analysis. This was followed by a collaborative, computer-assisted qualitative analysis, which resulted in the emergence of five key themes: lack of continuity of care, impact of lack of continuity of care, continuity of care interventions, impact of continuity of care interventions, and strategies to improve continuity of care. Results: Most studies focused on health services in rural or remote Aboriginal communities and there was a lack of documented evidence of continuity of care (or lack thereof) for Aboriginal women living and birthing in regional and metropolitan areas. The majority of studies focused explicitly on continuity of care during the antenatal, birthing and immediate postnatal period, with only two studies considering continuity through to an infant's first 1000 days. Conclusion: The review highlights a lack of studies exploring continuity of care for Aboriginal families from the antenatal period through to an infants' first 1000 days of life. Included studies identified a lack of continuity in the antenatal, peri-and postnatal periods in both regional and metropolitan settings. This, along with identified strategies for enhancing continuity, have implications for communities, and healthcare services to provide appropriate and culturally safe care. It also marks an urgent need to incorporate and extend continuity of care and carer through to the first 1000 days for successful maternal and infant health outcomes for Aboriginal peoples.

Aim and objectives Defining the components of emotional competence in caring for older people in Iranian hospitals. Background People of older age are the largest recipients of healthcare services in hospitals. Thus, it is essential to establish what characteristics of emotional competence are required for nursing older people. Design This qualitative descriptive‐exploratory study was conducted in Iran from September 2015 to April 2016. Methods Semi‐structured interviews were conducted with 25 participants (nine nurses, 12 nurse managers, four clinical instructors), chosen by purposive and snowball sampling based on saturation. Data were analysed by content analysis method. Results Qualitative content analysis identified two core categories and seven subcategories from the data: (a) Individual emotional competence with five subcategories of positive attitude, spiritual maturity, emotional self‐control, adherence to professional ethics and creativity and innovation, and (b) social emotional competence with two subcategories of relationship management and compassionate care. Conclusion Emotional competence was identified as one of the main components of nursing skills when caring for older people. Gerontological nurses should demonstrate emotional competence in caring for older people and include a positive attitude, spiritual maturity, emotional self‐control, adherence to professional ethics, creativity in care, successful relationship management and compassionate care in their practice. Implications for practice These findings can be used to guide development of emotional competencies for nursing older people.