Alice Springs Hospital's Cultural Safety Practices for Aboriginal and Other Communities

In this report we will discuss about cultural safety and below are the summaries point:- Cultural safety is a nursing practice for individuals from different cultures Alice Springs Hospital serves Aboriginal individuals and offers various healthcare services Effective communication is essential for promoting health literacy and improving healthcare quality.

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Alice Springs Hospital
Introduction
Cultural safety is known as a nursing practice that is effective of an individual or family from a
different culture that is regulated by the individual or the family. The origin of cultural safety is
nursing education and learning that can be selected from maturity, sexual orientation, beliefs in
religion and disabilities. Alice Spring Hospital is a major acute hospital in Australia which serves
Aboriginal individuals and other communities. The position of the hospital is that it offers
training regarding health. Effective communication is essential in promoting health literacy
hence improving the quality of healthcare services. Culture is the central position of how the
Aboriginal people view other individuals. Lack of proper planning and teamwork are the barriers
of the implementation of the position statement hence relevant stakeholders to work together to
ensure that the position statement is successfully implemented.
Position
Alice Springs Hospital is the main acute hospital for central Australia serving up to sixty
thousand individuals in the area including the foreigners with 186 beds. We offer a variety of
specialists subjects that encompass general medicine, nephrology, rehabilitation medicine,
palliative care medicine, anesthesia, surgery, pediatrics, obstetrics and gynecology and
psychiatry, and many other health services. There is also a very active Renal Unit with onsite
dialysis and a 26-seat satellite dialysis unit (Einsiedel & Woodman, 2010). Many expertise
services are given on a visiting basis. Alice Springs hospital offers teaching services and a
campus of the Northern Territory Clinical School of the Flinders University of South Australia.
Also, in the Department of Pediatrics, medicine, surgery, and Obstetrics and Gynecology,

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academic appointments have been made. It also gave the mandate by the Northern Territory
Postgraduate Medical Council on behalf of the Medical Board of the Northern Territory for
internship and has a training program actively (Diplock, Ward, Stewart, Scuffham, Stewart, P.,
Reeve, & Maguire, 2017). The scope of the clinical services is unique focusing on infectious
illnesses and indigenous health. We also offer excellent training opportunities and experience
which is meaningful to general rural expertise and is a Universities of Sydney, Queensland, and
New South Wales affiliated teaching health facility.
It is the only main secondary referral health facility in Central Australia with a drainage area that
covers an estimated 1.6 million square kilometers and assists individuals who live in Northern
Territory and also in rural areas in Northern and South West Australia (Heppell, & Wigley,
2017). We also provide a robust junior doctor training plan with award-winning personnel of
professionals, and they are deeply committed to offering junior doctor various education and
training plan. There are also over thirty resident medical officers who help in educating the
public regarding health matters hence improving health literacy in the area.
Effective communication is essential to both health experts and health users. This is the
foundation of the association between experts and individuals (Miller, 2016 ). Effective
communication has helped Alice Springs Hospital in making decisions, informed consent and
assists self- management consisting of adhering to medication interventions. Also, the interface
includes easy access to interpreters; knowledge regarding health is accessible for different
audiences, respecting the rights, decisions and the views of individuals and helping improved
health literacy for health experts and the consumers. This is essential since communication helps
to enhance health literacy in tailor health education sessions and also assisting the consumers in
making decisions while knowing autonomy.

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Furthermore, communication provides a ground for clinical personnel training so that they can
develop their awareness and comprehension about health literacy and reinforce the abilities in
effective interpersonal communication methods encompassing knowledge and skills in working
with interpreters and practices that will enhance the health information sharing (Finn, &
O’Fallon, 2015). This is essential because it will help in promoting peace, harmony, and
understanding of both patients and clinical experts. Appropriate translations, sign language, usual
educational forms and audio-visual equipment are available so that all categories of individuals
are sorted out and assisted appropriately through effective communication. In addition, Cultural
Advisory group was created that strengthens the relationship between the community health
givers, the wide community and the emergency department. This will help in creating various
innovative initiatives that will enhance the delivery of healthcare services that is safe and
appropriate culturally.
The rationale for a positioning statement
A position statement is crucial since it outlines what the organization intends to do to its
consumers and providing necessary healthcare services that will help in improving health
literacy. It also helps in communicating the position of the organization regarding significant
issues that are relevant in attaining a strong nation that is supported by the best system of
healthcare. The organization is able to understand its mandate and how it should carry out
activities that will create a safe environment for all individuals regardless of their race, ethnicity,
and religion. The position statement also outlines the unique services that the organization offer
is hence making people aware of it and this helps in promoting health (Noordman, van Vliet,
Kaunang, van den Muijsenbergh, Boland & van Dulmen, 2019). The services provide insight for
more knowledge regarding many diseases and how they can be prevented in many ways through

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health education and training for both the staff and health consumers. In addition, the position
statements help health consumers to know the organization and the kind of services that can
benefit them in health matters. This helps in relaying information to more individuals around the
country and make the organization known by all people (Johnson, 2015). It provides safe
healthcare surrounding by indicating its strong points so as to create huge support from the
public. This helps in creating awareness about the organization and promote health.
Also, effective communication and teamwork are vital in delivering high quality and safe patient
care (Thornton, Frémont, Khan, Poirier, Fowles, Wells,& Frankovich, 2016). The complexity of
healthcare depends on communication hence making it essential for health professionals to have
standardized communication tools and create a surrounding where people can communicate
without fear when expressing their views and share a universal language that can be used in
alerting teammates to unsafe experiences.
Health literacy is the ability of a person to understand and act on information regarding health.
Studies have shown that those with limited health literacy can misunderstand health information.
Every interaction and associations in healthcare depend on the effectiveness of communication
(Schwamm, Chumbler, Brown, Fonarow, Berube, Nystrom, & Lacktman, 2017). This means
that the needs, values and the beliefs of the patients are considered when making a decision.
Through effective communication, health literacy skills will improve the performance of the
organization since all individuals will be able to communicate effectively and create
opportunities for improvement. It is essential for the organization to use patient-centered
methods to reach many people who may not get or comprehend written and oral health data
which is mostly presented in English. This is essential since many people will learn how to
communicate effectively hence improving health outcomes.

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The Northern Territory in Australia is one of the most culturally and linguistically distinct areas
in Australia. There are over one hundred Aboriginal dialect and languages. Culture is at the
center of how the Aboriginal individuals view a person. Health systems in the Northern Territory
and the whole of Australia have indicated the norms and values of western cultures hence it is
essential that Northern Territory health understand the differences in culture and deliver services
in an appropriate method for Aboriginal communities and individuals. This helps in improving
the quality of healthcare services and provide a culturally safe environment. Media plays a
critical role in promoting a safe cultural environment. This is because it creates awareness of the
organizations through television, radio and other relevant resources to make the organization
known ( Koo, Horowitz, Radice, Wang, & Kleinman, 2016 ). There is also the use of online
platforms where the organization can market itself and provide quality services to residents and
nonresidents.
Through health education, health consumers can ask more questions regarding health so that they
can get more knowledge about different health issues. Consumers are also requested to give
feedback and reviews of health and patient education encompass sing materials and plans that
will emphasize on the essentiality of literacy in health by providing training and making sure
that the personnel are highly knowledgeable regarding the tools and the materials that are
available to help them in delivering health data to the users (Koo et al., 2016).
Lack of proper planning has been a barrier within the organization. Without a plan, the
organization will fall apart and cause more challenges than benefits; hence the hospital
management must ensure that all relevant stakeholders are involved in decision making so that
all executions can take place on time. There is also lack of teamwork among members of
different departments hence the unwillingness to execute the position statement. The hospital

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management can collaborate with other stakeholders and emphasize on the importance of
teamwork hence easy implementation of the position statement.
In conclusion, cultural safety is essential since it provides clear indications of effective
communication so that healthcare can be improved. Effective communication between sufferers
and health caregivers is a crucial factor in a culturally safe environment. The attitudes, actions,
and beliefs of the patients must be taken into consideration because it can influence the care of
the patient and can assist the health professionals to enhance access to and quality of health care.
This will help in creating a cultural safe environment for all individuals.
References
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Finn, S., & O’Fallon, L. (2015). The emergence of environmental health literacy—from its roots
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Heppell, M., & Wigley, J. J. (2017). Black out in Alice: A history of the establishment and
development of town camps in Alice Springs. Canberra, ACT: Development Studies
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