Relationality and Responsibility: Exploring the Integration of an Indigenous-Led Midwife Hospitalist to Increase Access to Culturally Safe Care for Indigenous Families

Cultural safety training and practices are increasingly being called for to address Indigenous health inequities, with limited research to understand if and how these work to improve health outcomes. The creation of an Indigenous-led midwife hospitalist role at a tertiary-level urban hospital is one such example. Through semi-structured interviews with nine health care providers, we explore the integration of the midwife hospitalist into the hospital-based health care team. The analysis of interviews identified contradictory themes: an abdication of responsibility; acknowledgement of a unique contribution to the team; and a lack of understanding of the role. The contradiction stems from a fundamental difference in Indigenous and Western understandings of health. This difference results in a different understanding of the role and responsibility of health care providers. Indigenous health inequities will continue until there is a systemic shift in understandings of health, wellbeing, and the role of health care providers.