Pharmacy Daily | Yarning seems a way to better health

A NEW healthcare education program developed in rural Western Australia is breaking down communication barriers between clinicians and First Nations patients.

Clinical Yarning is a patient-centred communication framework for First Nations healthcare to increase health professionals' knowledge, confidence and competence in delivering care to Aboriginal patients.

Professor Juli Coffin, from Murdoch University's Ngangk Yira Institute for Change, said while it is well documented that communication barriers exist in First Nations healthcare, few interventions have been found to address the issue, until now.

"The Clinical Yarning program teaches professionals how to deliver high-quality and accessible healthcare to Indigenous patients," Coffin said.

"It is underpinned by the principles of cultural security and adult learning, utilising a behavioural skills approach and bridges a gap to significantly improve experiences and outcomes for Indigenous patients."

Healthcare professionals involved in the program reported significant improvements in self-rated communication skills, ability, confidence, knowledge and also the perceived importance of communication training.

They strongly recommended the program to other professionals and stated that simulation and interactive learning activities were valuable aspects of the training.

"Health service managers acknowledge the limitations of most existing cultural training and felt Clinical Yarning addressed a need to ensure quality and culturally appropriate healthcare can be delivered to Indigenous peoples throughout our country," explained Coffin.

"There are challenges in delivery of education in remote areas, such as workforce transiency and availability of participants, so possible flexible training options have been identified."

Considerations identified for the future of Clinical Yarning included building multilevel partnerships within health services, offering alternate training options such as eLearning or train-the-trainer approaches and integrating into existing development programs. JG