AM nurse creates interactive guide on indigenous health and cancer treatment

educational action

Manual was motivated by difficulties in communication, different habits and customs

Nurse Lorena Silveira, from the Amazonas State Oncology Control Center Foundation (FCecon), created an interactive guide for nursing professionals who provide assistance to indigenous people with cancer in the Amazon. With illustrations and ox tunes, the educational material addresses thematic axes, such as education and care.

Between 2022 and 2023, 109 indigenous patients began treatment at FCecon. Since 2019, the Foundation has had a protocol for differentiated assistance to indigenous villagers, those who live in villages, considering their sociocultural vulnerability. This type of reception is regulated by Ordinance No. 2663, of October 11, 2017, which deals with Specialized Care for Indigenous Peoples (IAE-PI), of the Unified Health System (SUS).

Guide

The guide “Care for the indigenous population with cancer in the Amazonian context: a guide for nursing” it is the result of the professional master’s degree in Nursing of Lorena Silveira, in the Graduate Program in Nursing in the Amazonian Context, at the Federal University of Amazonas (Ufam), under the guidance of Professor Zilmar Augusto, from the School of Nursing.

Motivation

Lorena Silveira has been an assistant nurse for six years at FCecon and, realizing the difficulties experienced in contact with the indigenous population, proposed the creation of a manual for health professionals.

“What motivated me was the contact with indigenous patients during the shifts at the institution and the difficulties experienced during the assistance. And mainly the fact that we are the state with the largest indigenous population and, most of the time, professionals are not prepared to deal with this indigenous within the hospital context. They have a lot of difficulties.”

he said.

According to Silveira, there are difficulties in communication, different habits and customs and different nutritional aspects.

“These are populations with very interesting life histories, which deserve to be respected mainly for their entire historical and cultural context. We have a lot to learn from them too.”

affirm.

Interaction

In an illustrated and educational way, the guide has a fictional character, “Iacy”, demonstrating the entire journey that the indigenous person takes from leaving their community to arriving at a treatment center.

The manual is interactive. It has graphics, ox tunes that link with the sections of the guide and videos that deepen the theme of traditional peoples.

The material is divided into four thematic axes: education, policies, assistance and care, and multidisciplinarity.

There is information on the organization of Special Indigenous Health Districts (DSEIs); most populous ethnic groups in the Amazon; risk factors for cancer in indigenous populations; importance of hospital environment; nursing care actions and decisions based on cross-cultural theory; challenges faced by the indigenous people until reaching the reference centers; among others.

“The main objective of the guide is to propose care reflections, to health professionals, and guide actions that promote differentiated attention to indigenous populations with cancer, within our Amazonian scenario”,

highlights Silveira.

Education

The objective is for the manual to be used as a permanent education for health professionals. The material is undergoing a correction phase and will soon be made available to professionals.

*With advisory information

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