Holistic Health of Two Spirit People in Canada: A Call for Nursing Action.
Melissa Dykhuizen, Kerry Marshall, Rachel Loewen Walker and 1 others
PMID 35068205WHAT IT FOUND
Two Spirit people's health in Canada was described through mental, spiritual, physical and emotional themes.
Culture and spirituality were strengths; racism, homophobia, violence and invisibility were barriers. No nursing research on their care was found.
Key findings
01The review identified holistic health themes for Two Spirit people in Canada: mental, spiritual, physical and emotional health, each with supports and barriers.
02Connection to Indigenous culture and spirituality was linked to lower depression and suicidality and greater resilience, but colonization and lack of Two Spirit-inclusive Elders could limit spiritual supports.
03The authors found no research speaking specifically to nurses about holistic care of Two Spirit people in Canada.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for RNs
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What it does not show
The review included only six academic sources and five grey literature sources, so it rests on a small body of work. It found no research specifically about nurses providing holistic care to Two Spirit people in Canada. Some literature used the Two Spirit acronym without clear evidence that Two Spirit participants were recruited or that data were collected from them. The search was limited to English-language sources from 2010 to 2020 and excluded literature reviews and poster abstracts, so relevant work may have been missed. Grey literature included newspaper articles, which may not provide the same methodological detail as peer-reviewed studies. The paper does not test any intervention or patient outcome, so it cannot show that the suggested nursing actions improve health.
Declared interests
The review was part of a Canadian Institute of Health Research funded initiative that began as an invited research summit for Indigenous scholars.
The easy way to misread this
Do not treat the suggested nursing actions as tested interventions. The review found very little literature, no nursing research on holistic care for Two Spirit people, and no tested patient outcomes, so it cannot show that these actions work.