Michelle Crilly1, Amber Smith1
1Ambulance Victoria, Doncaster, Australia
Biography:
Michelle is a proud Yorta Yorta woman who is passionate about creating a culturally safe environment for Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander staff & patients. Michelle started as an Aboriginal Cadet at AV and now works as an ALS Paramedic and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Program Lead.
Abstract:
Introduction: Ambulance Victoria (AV) is collaborating with the Darak Team, part of the Australian Stroke Alliance, to lead the national Asking the Question Campaign to mandate asking every ambulance patient “do you identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander?”.
Problem Statement: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have the poorest health outcomes of all Australians. Asking the Question to identify a patient’s Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander status enables delivery of culturally safe services to improve patient outcomes.
Asking the Question is an innovative project that aims to ‘Improve Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patient outcomes. Educating AV’s workforce on the importance of Asking the Question increases confidence in Asking the Question and understanding “how” and “why” reduces barriers. Collecting accurate patient data helps AV to understand safety and quality performance to improve experiences for patients and carers.
Actions: The presentation will cover the design phase actions and key implementation considerations:
• Evidence base for “asking the question” and its impact on cultural safety/patient outcomes.
• AV’s education approach – addressing barriers by building the confidence of the workforce to increase knowledge, skills and awareness; and promoting inclusive and respectful language.
• Alignment with AV’s Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan, to support and educate staff on culturally appropriate ways to offer patients an opportunity to self-identify as an Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person.
Conclusion: Embedding evaluation is a critical component of this work and we will present our approach to monitoring, evaluation, learning and measuring the impact of this initiative.