Discussing End of Life Choices With American Indian and Alaska Native Patients

Speaker: Mary J. Owen, MD
American Indians and Alaska Natives (AIAN) have cultural practices for all phases of life that have been in existence for thousands of years. Despite US government policies aimed at eradicating AIAN culture, the Indigenous Peoples of this nation have maintained many of their traditional practices and beliefs. Commonly, members of AIAN communities hold cultural beliefs and practices about their bodies at the end of their lives that differ from the beliefs and practices of dominant US society. Because of hundreds of years of harmful US treatment directed at them, many AIAN people are less likely to share their wishes for end of life care and planning. Without their engagement in end of life planning, AIAN people would not be receiving ethical clinical care.
Objectives: After this webinar, attendees will be able to:
Examine the principles of clinical ethics from the perspective of American Indians and Alaska Natives.
Recognize that applying clinical ethics to end of life care begins long before discussions on advance care planning.
Identify approaches to discussing advance care planning with American Indian and Alaska Native patients.
Participants are eligible to receive a Certificate of Attendance to submit to their respective professions for CEUs. Certificates of Attendance are available only to webinar attendees who are present for 75% or more of the talk.
Health professions students are eligible for IPE credit. IPE credit is available only to webinar attendees who are present for 75% or more of the talk and complete a written reflection form.
Mary J. Owen, MD, is a member of the Auk Kwaan Tribe of the Tlingit people. She was raised in Juneau, Alaska and has been involved in Native health since the age of three when she received her health care from the Indian Health Service. She attended medical school to serve her tribal community which she did for eleven years before returning to academia where she recruits and supports Native American students to become healthcare providers and where she teaches on caring for Native patients and communities. She is the immediate past-president of the Association of American Indian Physicians (AAIP). As AAIP president, Dr. Owen created two national programs to support Native American students. The Indigenous Health Education and Resource Task Force (IHEART) aims to create regional networks of support networks for Native students in grades K-post-graduate education. The second effort is the Indigenous Health Educators Alliance (IHEAL) which aims to mimic the national standards for Indigenous medical education that exist in Australia and New Zealand. Dr. Owen continues to provide clinical care at the Center of American Indian Resources in Duluth, Minnesota.