Health system learning with Indigenous communities: a study protocol for a two-eyed seeing review and multiple case study

• Published in: Health Research Policy and Systems
• Main Authors: Crystal Milligan, Rosa Mantla, Grace Blake, John B. Zoe, Tyanna Steinwand, Sharla Greenland, Susan Keats, Sara Nash, Kyla Kakfwi-Scott, Georgina Veldhorst, Angela Mashford-Pringle, Suzanne Stewart, Susan Chatwood, Whitney Berta, Mark J. Dobrow
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: BMC 2022
• Subjects: Organizational learning; Learning health systems; Indigenous health; Knowledge; Evidence; Two-eyed seeing; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Canada; Northwest Territories; First Nations; Gwich’in; inuit
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1186/s12961-022-00873-8; https://doaj.org/article/dca76d1d9d884b5da3f5d736fa7cacde

Abstract Background It is well documented that Canadian healthcare does not fully meet the health needs of First Nations, Inuit or Métis peoples. In 1996, the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples concluded that Indigenous peoples’ healthcare needs had to be met by strategies and systems that emerged from Indigenous worldviews and cultures. In 2015, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission also called on health organizations to learn from Indigenous “knowledges” and integrate Indigenous worldviews alongside biomedicine and other western ways of knowing. These calls have not yet been met. Meanwhile, the dynamic of organizational learning from knowledges and evidence within communities is poorly understood—particularly when learning is from communities whose ways of knowing differ from those of the organization. Through an exploration of organizational and health system learning, this study will explore how organizations learn from the Indigenous communities they serve and contribute to (re-)conceptualizing the learning organization and learning health system in a way that privileges Indigenous knowledges and ways of knowing. Methods This study will employ a two-eyed seeing literature review and embedded multiple case study. The review, based on Indigenous and western approaches to reviewing and synthesizing knowledges, will inform understanding of health system learning from different ways of knowing. The multiple case study will examine learning by three distinct government organizations in Northwest Territories, a jurisdiction in northern Canada, that have roles to support community health and wellness: Tłı̨chǫ Government, Gwich’in Tribal Council, and Government of Northwest Territories. Case study data will be collected via interviews, talking circles, and document analysis. A steering group, comprising Tłı̨chǫ and Gwich’in Elders and representatives from each of the three partner organizations, will guide all aspects of the project. Discussion Examining systems that create health disparities is an imperative ...