Innovative collaborative care anti-racism curriculum
There is a scarcity of Indigenous health curricula for health professionals in Australia. Many health professionals and students have not completed syllabus covering anti-racism, reflexivity, and advocacy.
The Faculty of Medicine, Nursing and Health Sciences at Monash University introduced an innovative collaborative care anti-racism curriculum in 2021, with over 1000 students completing the subject in its first year, and already over 400 in 2022.
In the new 12-week curriculum, senior students follow the case of interpersonal and systemic healthcare racism imposed upon Kallara, a young Aboriginal woman. The self-contained, non-didactic module uses gamification to engage students and build their critical consciousness.
Students reflect on their anti-racism positioning and colonisation and are set a ‘challenge’ to respond to the racism experienced by Kallara, aiming to prevent further negative impacts. Students are allocated into interprofessional teams combining students studying health sciences, medicine, nutrition and dietetics, occupational therapy, paramedicine, pharmacy, physiotherapy, psychology, radiography and radiation therapy. They are tasked to get together throughout the term, to develop advocacy materials and make recommendations for structural change.
This new anti-racism curriculum is evidence of our faculty’s commitment to the principles behind this year’s NAIDOC Week theme - Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!
Through the leadership of our Gukwonderuk Unit, our faculty works together to support and secure institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms.
We are committed to:
- a human rights approach to health equity for Indigenous people
- quality education in Indigenous health equity
- developing more Indigenous people to become healthcare providers, educators, researchers and leaders.
"This year's NAIDOC theme is Get Up, Stand Up and Show Up. This module is about activating this theme. The module builds the capacity of staff and students to be actively involved in anti-racism and improving equity in healthcare. So Get Up, Stand Up and Show Up and do this module so you can act,” said Petah Atkinson who is a Monash lecturer and PhD Candidate investigating anti-racism in healthcare.
Find out how you can support NAIDOC week here.
Find out more about Gukwonderuk here.
About Monash University
Monash University is Australia’s largest university with more than 80,000 students. In the 60 years since its foundation, it has developed a reputation for world-leading high-impact research, quality teaching, and inspiring innovation.
With four campuses in Australia and a presence in Malaysia, China, India, Indonesia and Italy, it is one of the most internationalised Australian universities.
As a leading international medical research university with the largest medical faculty in Australia and integration with leading Australian teaching hospitals, we consistently rank in the top 50 universities worldwide for clinical, pre-clinical and health sciences.
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