Registered Nurse Nayda Heays will be presenting on a
topic close to her heart at a nursing conference in Canada
this July: Māori experiences of kidney
transplantation.
The Hawke’s Bay Hospital Intensive
Care Unit (ICU) nurse has several whānau members who have
had or have kidney disease or dialysis.
This is in
part what inspired her to co-author the study, published in
the American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), which
she will be presenting at the International Council of
Nurses Congress, held in Montreal from 1 to 5
July.
“My why is so strong,” Nayda says. She is
also part of the ICU’s Patient-At-Risk outreach team and
holds the Māori seat for the NZ Critical Care College –
NZNO.
“It’s about the right for Māori to
self-determine their health, and be given equitable
opportunities,” she says.
Nayda says the research
was first inspired by a small study she initiated in 2017.
At the time, she was an Organ Donation NZ Link Nurse, and
also working in ICU, and had witnessed colleagues omit to
ask Māori patients about organ donation.
“The study
posed the question: ‘Do staff take bias into our jobs?’
and they did,” Nayda says.
“In a nutshell, I
identified staff perspectives about why we don’t ask
Māori about donation.”
Nayda is one of five Māori
nurses attending the ICN conference, each presenting
different research.
“Our aim is to build and
establish relationships – we are going hard as indigenous
nurses,” she says.
“From a Te Ao Māori
perspective, we are going to whanaungatanga with the rest of
the world.”
Nayda was one of six who co-authored the
AJKD study, which used a kaupapa Māori methodology
(“By Māori, for Māori, to improve outcomes for
Māori”) to canvas perspectives of indigenous Māori on
kidney transplantation.
Previously a nurse in the
hospital’s Renal department, Nayda was the sole
qualitative interviewer for the study. She interviewed 40
people including organ donor whānau, recipients and people
waiting. Each interview took 60 to 90 minutes.
Among
the study’s findings were that participants wanted health
services to incorporate the values of tikanga, karakia and
whanaungatanga.
The research also found Māori
patients and whānau advocated for an indigenous,
strength-based, culturally responsive approach to education
and treatment options for kidney
disease.
“Self-determination means Māori should
decide for their own people, for their communities,” Nayda
says.
“If we are empowered to do that in a system
that actualises Te Tiriti o Waitangi, our own health
outcomes will
improve.”
© Scoop Media