Lakehead University nursing student Brianna Decontie’s ethic of compassionate care, based on a mix of traditional Indigenous and scientific knowledge, inspired her to develop a community support group for Aboriginal new mothers.
The Mothers Support Group Five-Week Program, based on the Give Your Child A Healthy Happy Smile Ontario Ministry of Health initiative, provides oral health-care guidelines, influenced by Medicine Wheel teachings, for new mothers accessing health care from Kitigan Zibi Health and Social Services.
Brianna, a fourth-year undergraduate nursing student who is Anishinaabe, is praised by her teachers for her “capacity and competence as a nursing student … in applying both nursing and Indigenous knowledge practices when providing compassionate and professional care.”
Brianna says her nursing practice reflects her Indigenous ‘way of being,’ and believes it is important to keep Anishinaabe teachings alive. Her work won her a 2018 Council of Ontario Universities Programs in Nursing Award.
