Epilogue

Abstract

[Extract] This special issue of Contemporary Nurse on Advances in Contemporary Indigenous Health Care has finally come to fruition. It has been a difficult and challenging journey, but the outcome has made it worthwhile. Importantly, this area of health care is one that deserves special attention and we commend the editors on the decision to once again make this a feature of the journal. The authors submitted a range of interesting and important papers covering issues of direct relevance to clinical health care, such as anti-smoking projects (Robertson, 2010; Thompson, 2010), issues surrounding access to health care services (Van Herk, Smith, & Andrew, 2010), nurses' experiences caring for circumcised patients (Mangena, Mulaudzi, & Peu, 2010), and other important areas such as education of nurses, ways to increase the numbers of Indigenous students (Biles & Biles, 2010; Meissner, 2010; Stuart & Nielsen, 2010; West, West, West, & Usher, 2010), and issues related to culture (Blackman, 2010; Downing & Kowal, 2010; Rigby et al., 2010). While most of the papers submitted were from Australian authors, we were very pleased to receive and accept two papers from international authors for the special edition (one from Canada and one from South Africa). Of course there were also three invited editorials from Australian nurse leaders, including an Indigenous nurse, a Professor of Nursing, and the Chief Nurse of Australia, which set the scene for the issue.