“Treat Me like Your Family”: Positive Factors that Influence Patient-Provider Relationships for Native American Women

ABSTRACT

Although extensive documentation of the health disparities experienced by Native American peoples exists, little research explores experiences of members of non-federally recognized tribes who receive health care outside of the Indian Health Services (IHS) system. Additionally, positive factors that influence relationships between health care providers and tribal members are understudied and are needed to promote health care access. A qualitative descriptive methodologic approach was used to conduct semi structured life history interviews with 31 women who identified as members of a state-recognized, Gulf South Native American tribe. Results identified the following important themes: Do Participants Have a Regular Provider, Personal Relationship With Provider, Feel Provider Cares, Provider Addresses Concern, and Respect for Traditional or Holistic Medicine. These findings suggest health care providers play an important role in impacting the health care experiences of Native American tribal members. Implications for trainings for health care providers are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Native American
• provider relationships
• healthcare

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the New Orleans Center for the Gulf South at Tulane University; Tulane University School of Liberal Arts.