Why is Cultural Safety Important?
Cultural safety is NOT to become an expert in the ethnicity of other peoples BUT understanding your own cultures, cultures of the workplace, and health professional groups AND how these influence practice and impact on care recipients.
Cultural safety is extremely important in the professional roles of Nurses and Midwives. Cultural Safety is as critical as clinical safety. The term ‘Cultural’ is not about cultural identity, ethnicity or traditions. Rather, it’s about the ‘culture’ of power.
Cultural safety is an outcome of nursing and midwifery education that enables safe service to be defined by those that receive the service and is a way of providing care that is holistic, free of bias and racism, challenges belief based upon assumption and is done in a respectful manner. This Cultural Safety program has been developed to recognise the historical, social, material, and political conditions of Australia’s colonial context, specifically from the social positions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ health outcomes, culture of power dynamics within nursing and midwifery workforce, and the implications for clients’ health care and professional practice.
The concept of Cultural Safety:
- arose from the colonial context of Aotearoa (New Zealand) by Māori nurses and nursing students in response to the manifestations of racism.
- was further theorised by Māori nursing educator, Dr Irihapeti Ramsden, to develop the concept of cultural safety into the theoretical and practical framework of kawa whakaruruhau meaning protection (pronounced: ‘ka-wa’ ‘faka-ru-ru-ho’).
- was the focus of Dr Ramsden’s 2001 CATSIN Conference presentation, where she shared her theorising and real practice implications.
- has since been adopted in Australia and developed to recognise the historical, social, material, and political conditions of Australia’s colonial context, specifically from the social positions of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
- is pivotal to contemporary Australian nursing and midwifery theory and practice, particularly regarding its potential to improve nursing and midwifery care to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ participation in and influence of Australia’s nursing and midwifery professions.