Programs Closing The Gap Improving Cultural Safety
Improving Cultural Safety
The original notion of cultural safety was conceived by a Maori nurse Irihapeti Ramsden. She recognised that it was not enough to understand and validate cultural differences as described in cultural awareness approaches. “Cultural safety involves recognition of power balances and historical, political, social and economic structures. Cultural Safety requires the health professional (or other professionals) to understand their own culture and to acknowledge the power imbalance brought about by dominant systems. It requires them to actively seek to ensure no “cultural harm’ is done through actions that may impact on clients”
(K Taylor, P Guerin, Health Care and Indigenous Australians, Cultural Safety in Practice)
Cultural Safety has also been described as:
… “based on the experience of the recipient of care, rather than from the perspective of the medical practitioner. It involves the effective care of a person or family from another culture by a medical practitioner who has undertaken a process of reflection on their own cultural identity and recognises the impact their culture has on their own medical practice".
(Australian Indigenous Doctors Association, An introduction to cultural competency 2004)
“An environment that is safe for people: where there is no assault, challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need. It is about shared respect, shared meaning, shared knowledge and experience of learning, living and working together with dignity and truly listening”
(Williams 1999)
East Gippsland Primary Health Alliance