Aboriginal Patients

I am currently on a general surgery ward and treating a 45 year old aboriginal lady from a remote aboriginal community who underwent a right hemicolectomy about 2 weeks ago, she developed several complications and is having a fairly slow recovery therefore she is still on the ward. As she is from an aboriginal community she is not used to being in the city and doesn’t have any family in Perth communicating with her is quite difficult. It is very difficult performing the subjective assessment on this patient as she will rarely speak. To overcome this I have found the best way get information from her is asking very specific questions and generally she will answer them, also I can read her body language to determine some things such as if she is in pain. The more I have treated this patient I have also found that she has become more responsive to me as she is familiar with me. In the future when treating aboriginal patients who are not comfortable in the city I will remember my experiences with this patient and use similar strategies.