3. Cultural safety principles

Question 1

Luke’s cultural factors

Answer 1

­ Luke’s cultural factors include his family values and belief systems. Brought up in an Aboriginal family, his beliefs revolved around Aboriginal customs, which specified the importance of kinship and family members.
­ The local history of colonisation has also shaped his cultural determinants. This will influence a community’s capacity to retain their cultural values, principles, practices and traditions

Question 2

Luke’s social factors

Answer 2

­ ­Luke’s social factors that have shaped and influenced Luke include lifestyle in terms of wealth, status, education and family dynamics. This includes being the first from his community to go to university, and the community location, which is situated 300km away from the University

Question 3

Cultural Safety- rationale

Answer 3

­ Cultural safety was established by Maori nurses in New Zealand
­ Combat institutional racism and unfairness of minority groups in the healthcare, particularly with regards to interaction of consumers with health care professionals

Question 4

Principles of Cultural safety:

Answer 4

1. Reflect on your own practice
2. Engage in a conversation with the client to learn a bit about them
3. Minimise the power differentials between yourself and your clients
   (Working alongside or with Luke. Allow him to make his own decisions and support it)
4. Undertake a process of decolonisation
   (Learn and acknowledge the role that colonisation and history has impacted in Indigenous people and their lives)
5. Ensure that you do not diminish, demean or disempower others through your actions

Question 5

Principles of cross-cultural communication:

Answer 5

­ Politeness shows respect for person and culture
- Seek cultural background knowledge
- Observe cultural rules/ norms
­ Feedback and clarification minimises the risk of misunderstanding
- Ensure shared meanings are correct
­ A non-judgemental approach helps to create a rapport
- Do not make judgements or pass opinions
­ Context takes precedence over content
- Emphasise how the information applies to the person/ lifestyle

Question 6

Self-determination:

Answer 6

­ Let Luke decide for himself what he wants to do and ask how I can support him with this
Principles of self-determination:
­ Support- they can autonomously determine how to organise their resources
­ Knowledge- allowing Aboriginal people to build their own knowledge base rather than prescribing what is ‘best’ for them