Aboriginal communication

One of the most challenging things I found whilst on my rural placement in Kalgoorlie was communication with the local Aboriginal people. All the things that we had learnt in second year regarding Aboriginal communication such as lack of direct eye contact, importance of non-verbal cues, simplicity of information etc as well as information regarding their culture such as importance of family and community and response to white authority figures all came to make so much sense on this placement. For those of you about to embark on your rural placement and those likely to come in contact with Aboriginal people, my advice to you is to persist. I found that subjectively on most occasions I had difficulty getting enough information even with much prompting. Patient adherence to exercise and willingness to participate in treatment sessions also seemed an impossible barrier to overcome after my first week, but I hade found that with time, most of my patients would warm to me and be happy to participate. I found that taking a relaxed conversational approach often worked best, and although some patients remained quite shy, most Aboriginal patients proved to be the more memorable characters during my stay in Kalgoorlie. Having a glimpse at the living conditions of some of the Aboriginal communities on the outskirts of town it was no onder that these patients became all too well known to the hospital staff as they repeatedly presented with recurrent chest infections. Along with this, the growing rates of alcoholism and diabetes highlights the need for more focus to be placed on wider education of these communities.