The Center Party of the Sami Parliament is delighted that we first received our own nursing education, which began in Kautokino in January of this year.
And now we are very pleased to have adopted the regulations for the Sami National Nursing Education Guidelines. It is also gratifying to see that our newly elected Minister for Research and Higher Education, Ola Borten Moe (SP), is helping to highlight how important this is.
I myself was educated by a Sami teacher in Alta in the 1980s, and I learned a lot about Sami history, the entire history of the Sami school, as well as the fact that we were at the forefront in the country, when it came to focusing on bilingual education and multicultural pedagogy.
It was really necessary to gain an in-depth understanding of how important an Indigenous perspective is, as well as what it means to be a minority in society. Sami was a normal part of the entire education, in all subjects. It was immediately after the Alta campaign and the knowledge and public debate on the topics that Norwegian gained momentum.
Having a lot of knowledge about an ethnic group in your country is important when looking at the purpose of a profession or education. In the new regulation we can read the following about the purpose; Education must ensure that the candidate achieves an understanding of how Sami communities, languages, cultures, religions, healing traditions, and opinions about illness and health have emerged and how they change over time. Education must also ensure competence and attitudes which form the basis for equal service to all groups of society.
Particular emphasis has been placed on the status of the Sami as an indigenous people and their rights to linguistic and culturally adapted services. Education should ensure that the candidate can practice comprehensive and health-enhancing nursing with an in-depth study especially of the health conditions of the Sami population.
In this way, we have a national framework for what Sami nursing education should contain. Finally, we have what is needed for Sami residents to interview health professionals who have insight, understanding of cultural needs and knowledge of language challenges, in meeting Sami patients in our country.
Elizabeth Erki
parliamentary leader
Guovddášbellodat / Senterpartiet
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