Cultural Safety in Healthcare for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander People

Running head: QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
Question 1:
1.1.1
Aboriginals and the Torres Islanders follow cultural factors that are quite different from
that of the cultural traditions followed by the non-natives of the nation of Australia. One of the
most important cultural issues is the concept of time. Often it is seen that the Aboriginal’s
observance of time as well as measurement sometimes become a source of conflict when the
healthcare professionals try to provide care to the people (Shepherd et al. 2016). Time is rigid for
the non-natives and they are very particular about the time of appointments with patients. On the
other hand, native people provide more importance to kin and relationships and often may turn
up late, as they do not follow structured time and schedules. They call this koori time and hence
it may become a source of conflict. Another important issue is their concept of maintaining
silence. Often their culture supports them to maintain silence in the midst of the interactions or
discussions. They consider this as a norm to provide respect and values. However, non-natives
may misinterpret it with lack of understanding of the natives and many try to fill up the gaps.
This may result in conflict and disappointment among the natives and non-native people.
Question 2:
One of the biggest issues that may influence relationships development and communication
among the natives and non-natives is the language barriers. The English language that is used by
the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is quite different from the Standard Australian
English. Therefore, even if they speak in English, there might raise many issues where if the
healthcare professionals follow their real meaning of the words, then they may misunderstand

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
what the native people really wanted to mean and express. This can be explained with the help of
examples. When the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people say, “your treatment was
deadly”, they actually mean that the treatment was fantastic as according to them, deadly means
great, awesome or fantastic (Couzos et al. 2016). If they state, “my dubbay is goomi”, what they
actually mean is “my girlfriend is alcoholic. Therefore, professionals need to be knowledgeable
about their language to avoid any issues and misunderstanding. Another issue is that the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people has a very different concept of shame in comparison
to that of the non-native people. Often, during primary healthcare treatment, it is seen that
healthcare professionals need to be well aware of different personal information and habits in
order to provide proper recommendations. While the non-native patients are quite outspoken
about such facts, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people suffer from the feeling of
shame while sharing private and personal information, cultural beliefs and others. This may also
create issues as the healthcare professionals may fail to provide a comprehensive care plan to
help them overcome their disorders.
Question 3:
Cultural safety can be defined as the aspect of being acceptable to various differences
along with possessing the ability for analyzing the power imbalances, colonization, institutional
discriminations and different relationships with settlers. Researchers are of the opinion that
cultural safety is mainly about providing of quality healthcare that aligns successfully with the
familiar cultural values as well as norms of the persons who are accessing the service that differ
from the dominant culture or the culture of the providers (Raman et al. 2017). Cultural safety in
the workplace can be developed by planning for cultural safety training which would mainly aim
at the enhancement of the capacity of the health sector for improvement of program policy

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QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS
designs. Moreover, it would be also aimed at the making the employees culturally competent by
helping them to develop knowledge abut cultural traditions, inhibitions and preferences of the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and thereby developing skills and cultural
sensitivity and cultural respect to ensure satisfaction for the native people. This will help in
development of strong relationships among the native patients and healthcare professionals that
would ensure better health of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Question 4:
The healthcare professionals of the present organizations follow a number of interventions to
ensure cultural safety in the workplace. The first important aspect is maintaining of the protocols.
Professionals show respect to the native people, ask for informed consent, ask questions to seek
for cultural knowledge, demonstrate reciprocity and engages in community accompaniment.
However, the organizational culture still needs to provide more effort to make the healthcare
professionals to develop cultural awareness and cultural knowledge on their own terms by going
through evidence based articles, internet websites and many others (Brown et al. 2017). The
organization should try to encourage employees to develop the skills and personal knowledge
and such encouragement will help individuals to be more efficient. The third important aspect
that is well followed in the organization is the culture of effective partnership. The employees
ensure to promote the collaborative practice where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people
seeking for help are welcomed to a joint problem solving approach and treat them as carriers if
important information and are respected entirely making them the centre of the decision making
procedures. The fourth aspect is following of the proper process that engage in mutual learning,
frequent evaluation to check that proposed programs are working well and aligning with the
recipient’s values, preferences, and lifestyles. The last aspect is positive purpose that are built on