Footprints Forwards Blocked by a Failure Discourse: Issues in Providing Advice About Medicine and Other Health Science Careers to Indigenous Secondary School Students (Report‪)‬

The Apology to Australia's Indigenous Peoples Tby the Prime Minister Kevin Rudd in February 2008 provided an important opportunity for all sectors of Australian society to take action to address the longstanding health differences between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. This is a complex task that requires dedicated action on many fronts. It is now well accepted that one of those fronts is the recruitment and retention of Indigenous health professionals who will help improve the health outcomes of their own people (Congress of Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Nurses, 1998; Armstrong, 2001; Hays, 2002; Mak & Plant, 2005; Minniecon & Kong, 2005; Spencer, Young, Williams, Yan, & Horsfall, 2005). Australia has a poor track record in this field and there are currently very small numbers of Indigenous doctors, nurses and other health professionals (Minniecon & Kong, 2005; Drysdale, Faulkner, & Chesters, 2006). In order to improve the recruitment of Indigenous Australians into medicine and other health careers we applied for funding to carry out what became the Footprints Forwards: Better strategies for the recruitment, retention and support of Indigenous medical students project. This project was undertaken from 2005 to 2007 by a consortium from Monash University (lead agency), James Cook University (JCU) and The University of New South Wales (UNSW) for the Australian Government Department of Health and Ageing (DOHA) initially under the auspices of the Rural Undergraduate Support Committee (RUSC) Program. The overall aim of the project was to look at opportunities for and barriers to Indigenous student entry to medical education. This paper reports on one part of the wider Footprints project carried out by Monash University, which investigated the advice and support offered by career coordinators in Victorian secondary schools to Indigenous students considering careers in medicine.