“Double culturedness”: the “capital” of Inuit nurses

Abstract

BackgroundThe health and educational systems in Greenland and Nunavut are reflections of those in Denmark and Southern Canada, with the language of instruction and practise being Danish and English. This places specific demands on Inuit studying nursing.ObjectiveThis paper discusses the experiences of Inuit who are educated in nursing programmes and practise in healthcare systems located in the Arctic but dominated by EuroCanadian and Danish culture and language.DesignResearch was qualitative and ethnographic. It was conducted through 12 months of fieldwork in 5 Greenlandic and 2 Nunavut communities.MethodsObservation, participant observation, interviews, questionnaires and document review were used. The analytical framework involved Bourdieu's concepts of capital and habitus.ResultsParticipants experienced degrees of success and well-being in the educational systems that are afforded to few other Canadian and Greenlandic Inuit. This success appeared to be based on nurses and students possessing, or having acquired, what I call “double culturedness”; this makes them able to communicate in at least 2 languages and cultures, including the ability to understand, negotiate and interact, using at least 2 ways of being in the world and 2 ways of learning and teaching.ConclusionThere continues to be a critical need for Inuit nurses with their special knowledge and abilities in the healthcare systems of the Arctic. Inuit nurses’ experiences will help inform the education and healthcare systems and point to areas in need of support and change in order to increase recruitment and retention of nursing students and practitioners.

The state of Danish nursing ethnographic research: flowering, nurtured or malnurtured – a critical review

“…In the included papers, it was not necessarily clear how many hours of observations the results were based on; that is Møller wrote: ‘It (the fieldwork) was conducted in five Greenlandic and two Nunavut communities under an anthropological frame, with 12 months of fieldwork between August 2007 and June 2009’ (p. 2).…”

Culturally safe communication and the power of language in Arctic nursing

“…Between 1997 and 2001, I lived and worked as a community health and tuberculosis nurse and consultant in Nunavut: two years in Cape Dorset, and shorter periods in Igloolik, Pangnirtung, and Iqaluit. I have conducted master's research (Møller 2005) in two Nunavut communities and doctoral research in three communities in Nunavut and four in Greenland, and taught courses for the medical interpreter program in Nunavut and for the nursing program in Nuuk between 2002 and 2010. Over shorter periods between 2010 and 2013, I worked with and interviewed Greenlandic nurses in Nuuk for a book about nurses and nursing in Greenland (Møller 2014).…”

“…When nurses or students shared an experience that was not very positive, it would often be done outside the formal interview and in the form of a story. While doing research on sociocultural experiences with tuberculosis in Nunavut, I found that although some might share negative experiences with Southerners in casual conversations, interviewees would rarely say anything negative about Southerners, be they healthcare professionals or not, during formal interviews (Møller 2005). Bryld (1998) described similar experiences when Greenlanders had been interviewed about their being sent to Denmark to be raised in foster care.…”

“…This is true for both Nunavut and Greenland. While Inuit nursing students and nurses are bilingual and "double cultured" (Møller 2011), and the language most often spoken between Inuit nurses and healthcare users remains an Inuit language, more than half of the nurses in the Greenlandic healthcare system and 90% of those in Nunavut do not speak an Inuit language. Although nurses who have been in or have returned to Nunavut and Greenland often master some of the local language, the dominant means of communication in the healthcare systems remain English and Danish.…”

“…For Inuit nurses and nursing students, linguistic capital includes the ability to speak and understand a southern language and to speak and understand the language of nursing or the healthcare field. It also includes the ability to switch to an Inuit language and act in it when caring for an Inuk patient-an ability that makes it more possible to provide culturally safe care (Møller 2011). Language is also action, as it includes the nonverbal communication of body language (i.e., gestures, facial expressions, looks, pauses, and silences).…”