Building Bridges Through Understanding the Village Workshop: Transforming Nursing Students’ Perspectives of Indigenous People and Canadian History

Abstract

A mixed methods design using a cross-sectional survey was used to describe participants’ experiences of an experiential workshop entitled Building Bridges Through Understanding the Village. The Building Bridges workshops were held at a university located in Western Canada in 2016 with 213 attendees. Informed by Indigenous epistemology, cultural safety, and Kolb’s experiential learning theory, a student-led team comprised of undergraduates, graduates, and faculty members planned, implemented, and evaluated an arts-based experiential workshop. Following acquisition of a signed informed consent, 159 participants consented to evaluate the workshop. The majority of workshop participants were undergraduate nursing students. Overall, the workshop was positively reviewed and highly rated. The overarching theme in the narrative responses about the workshop was “Words can only do so much.” This theme encapsulated three categories: 1) imaginative empathy, 2) made me feel made me think, and 3) moving towards reconciliation. The results support the evidence that meaningful learning occurs through personal experience, reflection on those experiences, and integration of the new knowledge. The role-playing aspect of this workshop engaged attendees in a novel learning activity and facilitated an iterative cycle of experience (role-playing) and reflection (group discussion and narrative responses). By inviting participants to step into the lives of Indigenous peoples throughout history and feel what they might feel, deep insights were elicited at both a cognitive and emotional level. This workshop is one of many strategies to ensure that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission Calls to Action are honored. Nursing educators from across Canada are encouraged to consult Elders from local Indigenous communities and implement similar experiential workshops for their students to enhance their understanding of Canada’s history and promote culturally safe nursing practice. Further research is needed to explore the impact of other educational strategies to adequately prepare nursing students for entry-level competencies. In particular, a future study is needed to explore Indigenous patients’ perspectives of their interactions with these workshop participants.