Cultural Safety in Healthcare

This article discusses the concept of cultural safety in healthcare and focuses on developing a personal action plan for increasing cultural safety in mental health nursing. It explores the goals, objectives, resources, barriers, and methods of evaluation for implementing the plan. The need for cultural safety in mental health nursing and the benefits of creating a culturally safe environment are also discussed.

Running head: CULTURAL SAFETY
Cultural safety in healthcare
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Part 1
Introduction- The concept of cultural safety encompasses the outcome that
makes patients feel valued, respected and safe, free from any form of discrimination
and racism, at the accessing health and social care services. This part of the
assignment will focus on development of a personal action plan for increasing
cultural safety in mental health nursing.
Goals:
My goal would be to improve my capability, knowledge and skills to provide
culturally safe care practices to mentally ill people coming from varied cultural
backgrounds in order to ensure increased patient satisfaction by meeting their
cultural needs and adhering to their cultural expectations and preferences.
Objectives:
Three objectives would be followed by me to develop my ability to ensure
culturally safe practices:
 Develop cultural awareness or cultural consciousness of the constructs of
my own culture and accordingly recognize the unique as well as similar
qualities of other cultural qualities. Engagement with different cultural groups
in the nation is an imperative procedure of cultural consciousness and this
would help me to build collaborative relationships with my patients of varied
backgrounds (Giger, 2016)
 Undertake cultural appraisal or assessment so that I can identify the
different cultural domains of the difference which would be needed to be
considered for planning a person-family centered care
 I would be working on cultural safety skill development of proper
behaviors, appropriate culturally competent attitudes and communication
styles that would help in reducing the gap of inequities, make people
comfortable in my presence and help them to open up to me – this would
ensure quality care for the patient ensuring their participation in decision-
making (Garneau & Pepin, 2015)

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Resources or additional training requirements
 I would be requiring access to the university digital library so that I can carry
on evidence based practices, be aware of the recent approaches to develop
cultural competency and learn about the way how to develop cultural safety
from the evidences present in the literature
 I would participate in cultural safety development workshop which would be
lead and mentored by expert professionals in the domain. I would mainly
attend the workshop on the weekends which would not result me in missing
the lectures in the university on weekdays.
 I would be also taking interviews of healthcare professionals who are
experienced in treating people from varied cultural backgrounds. Their sharing
of their experiences and valuable advices would help me to develop my skills
and approaches as well (Kohlbry, 2016).
Anticipated barriers as well as strategies for overcoming the barriers
 My tight schedule of the attending lectures on the weekdays and the
homework and assignments of my academics that I need to handle on my
weekends might make it stressful for me to take out extra time to attend
workshops, undertake evidence based searches, interview competent
professionals
 From childhood, being exposed to prejudices and stigmatization again specific
cultures had resulted in development of unintentional cultural biasness within
me. Overcoming them and developing neutral stance and cultural openness
would be time constraining (Garneau & Pepin, 2015).
Methods of evaluation:
 The mentor in my workshops would be undertaking mock examinations
and would provide me with scores which can help me in understanding
whether I am developing my cultural safety skills or not
 I would also ask for feedbacks from my friends, colleagues and
professors regarding my skill of cultural safety abilities to understand
how will I am improving in the domain

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 I would be also maintaining reflection based journals and portfolios to
reflect on my cultural safety skills and thereby develop knowledge on
how well I am fairing in this attribute

4CULTURAL SAFETY
Part 2
Need for the plan- The domain of psychiatric nursing involves specialised
professionals who are entitled with the duty of providing care services to patients
who are in mental distress. In addition, nurses working in this domain acquire
specific training in a range of psychological therapies that are imperative while caring
for patients with challenging behaviour, and building a therapeutic alliance. There is
mounting evidence for the fact that as a concern of importance for any organisation
that is involved in the delivery of healthcare services for people who are suffering
from mental disorders, need to have necessary amenities and facilities for critically
evaluating and assessing their work practice (Pauly, McCall, Browne, Parker &
Mollison, 2015). In addition, the role of mental health practitioners also requires
individuals to be able to govern pathways that will help in genuine empowerment of
the clients, and their family members. Owing to the fact that the mainstream services
that are engaged in providing treatment for mental illness are primarily responsible
for enhancing the health and wellbeing of the patients, there is a crucial need to
progress the cultural safety, with the aim of improving accessibility for the patients. It
has often been found that cultural context is imperative in creating an impact on the
manner in which the healthcare providers talk about mental illness, which in turn
affects how the patients access necessary services (Stuart, 2014).
There is mounting evidence for the fact that cultural safety is a multi-layered
notion that is influenced by an array of issues such as, class, gender, language,
religion, and nationality. In addition, most relevant practices and theories of mental
health that commonly encompass psychiatry and conventional psychology, have
been found to originate from Western identifications of the human illness, and their
associated cultural ethnicities (Townsend & Morgan, 2017). Cultural safety is a broad
term that refers to the nursing practice involving a family or person from a diverse
culture and presence of an unsafe cultural practice refer to actions that often
demean the identity of the person who is being cared for. The reasons behind
improving cultural safety can be accredited to the fact that that presence of a
culturally safe environment helps in creating a provision where necessary services
are implemented, in alignment with the values and ethnicities of the patients, thus
improving delivery of health services (Parisa, Reza, Afsaneh & Sarieh, 2016).
Furthermore, presence of a culturally safe environment will also help in the

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identification of the existing differences among the mentally distressed patients who
are being provided treatment (Wepa, 2015). Another major reason behind
undertaking this personal action plan can be accredited to the fact that it will facilitate
gaining an insight on the impacts of culturally competent mental health services and
how they affect the patients and their families.
Furthermore, there remains substantial confusion about the parameters and
features that constitute the domain of cultural competence and cultural safety in
healthcare. While several interpretations link cultural safety to the means of gaining
better knowledge about the cultural practices and beliefs of a particular cultural
group, less attention is often given to the ways by which manifestation of cultural
preferences modify illness perceptions, acceptability of definite interventions and
care seeking attitudes (Nadal, Griffin, Wong, Hamit & Rasmus, 2014). It has often
been found that culture creates a strong impact on the behaviour of individuals
towards treatment seeking attitudes. Time and again it has been established that
lack of emotional expression often results in failure to identify the perceptions and
values of patient cultures that eventually leads to a disruption of cultural
competence, thus worsening the health outcomes. In addition, presence of cultural
safety will also act in the form of a tool that facilitates cultural regeneration and will
help in eliminating or preventing all forms of power imbalances, or institutional
discrimination (Hassan, Ventevogel, Jefee-Bahloul, Barkil-Oteo & Kirmayer, 2016).
Thus, with the aim of providing quality care to the individuals suffering from mental
disorders, belonging to a range of ethnicities, there is a need to adopt necessary
measures for embracing skills of self-reflection that will also prove imperative in
advancing the therapeutic encounter with the patients.
Implementation of the plan- Culturally safe practices often encompass include
actions that identify and respect the ethnic characteristics of others, and securely
meet their wants, anticipations and rights. On the other hand, practices that are
culturally unsafe often demean, diminish, or disempower the wellbeing and identity of
diverse individuals (Freeman et al., 2014). Hence, the primary objective of the plan
would be to create an environment that is socially, spiritually, and emotionally safe
for the patients, without any denial of identity (Garneau & Pepin, 2015). The
strategies that are intended to be implemented for establishing a culturally safe
practice would include applying evidence-based practice, gaining insight from

6CULTURAL SAFETY
mentors and attending workshops. Using the aforementioned strategies will help in
engaging in respectful communication, developing trust, and engaging in dialogue
that fosters sharing of knowledge.
Barriers- Some of the barriers that might act in the form of an impediment in
the process of delivery of culturally safe mental health service includes lack of time
management and failure to strike a balance between work and life, pre-existing
stigma and stereotypic attitudes towards other cultures. Hence, these barriers would
be eliminated by delegating tasks, prioritising works based on their urgency, setting
up deadlines, and avoiding procrastination. In addition, biasness towards other
cultures can be eliminated by educating self on different cultures, seeing people as
unique individuals, selecting appropriate language and gestures while
communicating with diverse patients, and respecting the autonomy and dignity of the
patients, while engaging them in their clinical decision making process (Truong,
Paradies & Priest, 2014). Efforts must also be taken to find opportunities for gaining
an understanding on the customs and values of different ethnicities, while focusing
on the need of making valuable contribution to the society.
Evaluation method- The Progress Evaluation Scales (PES) will be used in the
form of an assessment tool that will facilitate assessing the contemporary
functioning, pre-determined goals and objectives, and determining the change over
time, while caring for culturally diverse patients. Furthermore, constant feedback
from acquaintances, attempting examinations and maintaining reflective journals
would help in determining outcome evaluation. In contrast, the final outcome of the
implemented strategies can be assessed by using the patient-
reported outcome (PRO) instrument that will help in determining whether the
mentally ill patients are satisfied with the culturally safe care provided to them.

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