Purpose: To depict the phenomenon of nursing in the Native American culture.
Design: At the 1997 annual Native American Nursing Summit held on the Flathead Reservation in Montana, 203 Native American nurses, nursing students, and others who provide health care to Native American people attended and participated in focus groups that provided the data for this qualitative study. The participants represented many tribes from across the United States. Follow-up in 1998 included a similar group of 192 participants.
Methods: Native American nurses facilitated focus groups. The facilitators provided direction for the focus groups and supervised the data collection. Native American nurses with advanced degrees in nursing performed the data analysis utilizing theme, taxonomic, and componential analysis methods.
Findings: Seven dimensions were identified in the data: (a) caring, (b) traditions, (c) respect, (d) connection, (e) holism, (f) trust, and (g) spirituality. Each dimension is essential to the practice of nursing in Native American culture. Together they provide the basis for a systematic approach to Native American nursing practice, education, research, and administration.
Conclusions: The conceptual framework of nursing in the Native American culture, with its seven dimensions, shares dimensions with mainstream nursing, yet it differs in many important ways. This model can be used by Native American nurses to provide a structure for engaging in the profession of nursing. Further, it can be used by nurses of other cultures to understand nursing in the Native American culture and to provide health care to Native American people.