And [They] Even Followed Her Into the Hospital: Primary Care Providers’ Attitudes Toward Referral for Traditional Healing Practices and Integrating Care for Indigenous Patients

Introduction/Importance: Given the promise of integrating traditional healing practices into primary care, we sought to examine the influence of primary care providers’ racial concordance and Indigenous patients’ ethnic salience on traditional healing treatment decisions. Method: Using a descriptive comparative design with an online clinical case vignette, we measured provider decision making via a 5-point Provider Acceptance of Traditional Healing–Referral and Consult questionnaire. Aggregated results of the main effects and interactional effects were analyzed using a 2 × 2 analysis of variance between-subjects design. Results: The main effect for patient racial concordance on the dependent variable was significant, F(1, 89) = 5.71, p =.02. Conclusions: Provider–patient racial concordance does increase the providers’ likelihood of consulting with and referring patients to traditional healing practices, regardless of the patient’s ethnic salience. Implications for Practice: All health care providers require training in traditional healing practices for Indigenous persons as guided by the cultural safety framework.