The Wire

The West Australian government is hoping to see more Indigenous people take up nursing, through a targetted scholarship program. WA Chief Nursing Officer Dr Phillip Deller says the state urgently needs to adress the imbalance, with only 0.5% percent of nurses having an Indigenous background. The contribution of Black nurses has been far greater than this percent. Stories of their hardships are recorded in In our own right. Editor Dr Sally Gould acknowledges these Black nurses made many achievements with no support. The Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses, CATSIN welcomed the ten scholarships of $5000 as recruitment strategy .