Registered Nurse Naida Hayes will be speaking on a topic close to her heart at the Canadian Nursing Conference this July: the Māori experience of kidney transplantation.
Hawke’s Bay Hospital’s intensive care unit nurse has several whānau members who have had or are on kidney disease or dialysis.
In part, this inspired her to co-author a study published in American Journal of Kidney Diseases (AJKD), which she will present at the Congress of the International Council of Nurses, which will be held in Montreal from July 1 to 5.
“My reason is so strong,” Naida says. She is also part of the high-risk patient intensive care team and holds a Māori seat at the New Zealand College of Intensive Care (NZNO).
“It’s about the right of Maori to determine their own health and have fair opportunities,” she says.
Naida says she was first inspired to do the research by a small study she began in 2017. At the time, she was an organ donation nurse in New Zealand, also working in intensive care, and witnessed her colleagues not asking Māori patients about organ donation.
“The research asked the question: ‘Are staff biased towards our work?’ and they did,” Naida says.
“In a nutshell, I’ve identified the staff’s point of view as to why we don’t ask Māori for donations.”
Naida is one of five Māori nurses attending the ICN conference, each presenting different research.
“Our goal is to build and nurture relationships — we try as Native nurses,” she says.
“From a Te Ao Māori perspective, we’re going to build relationships with the rest of the world.”
Naida was one of six who co-authored
AJKD a study that used the kaupapa Māori (By Māori, for Māori, to improve outcomes for Māori) methodology to explore indigenous Māori perspectives on kidney transplantation.
Naida, who previously worked as a nurse in the hospital’s renal unit, was the only qualitative interviewer for the study. She interviewed 40 people, including whānau organ donors, recipients and people waiting. Each interview lasted from 60 to 90 minutes.
Among the findings of the study was that participants wanted health services to incorporate tikanga, karakia and wanungatanga values.
The study also found that Māori and whanau patients favor a local, strength-based and cultural approach to education and treatment options for kidney disease.
“Self-determination means that Māori must decide for their people, for their communities,” says Naida.
“If we are able to do that in a system that implements Te Tiriti o Waitangi, our health outcomes will improve.”