Importance of Effective Communication and Health Literacy in Promoting Culturally Safe Environment in Healthcare

This paper analyzes the importance of effective communication and health literacy in promoting a culturally safe environment in healthcare. It discusses the significance of nursing professionals as a target group for educating about effective communication and health literacy. The paper also provides a detailed rationale for culturally safe environments and their relation to reducing health inequality.

Running head: HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
Part 2
Introduction
Cultural safety involves empowerment of the patient and the healthcare practitioner.
The main path of promoting culturally safe environment in the healthcare includes
participation, protection and partnership (Pauly et al., 2015). According to Pauly et al. (2015),
promotion of the culturally safe environment is mainly highlighted by the recognition of
indices of power inherent under any interaction and significance of inequality and disparity
within any relationship. Under the culturally safe environment, a healthcare professional is
aware that imposition of his or her cultural beliefs may disadvantage the healthcare service
users and thus act in accordance with the spiritual belief and cultural thoughts of the
healthcare recipients. The following paper is aims to analyze the importance of effective
communication and health literacy in promoting culturally safe environment in healthcare.
The paper also attempts to discuss the importance of nursing professionals as selected as a
target group for educating about effective communication and health literacy. At the end
paper provides detailed rationale of culturally safe environment and its relation in reducing
health inequality.
Importance of effective communication in providing culturally safe environment
Effective communication is an important aspect of human interaction. It can be
defined as a two-way process of sending and receiving messages. For the perspective of the
cross-cultural experiences, it can be said that the spiritual and ethic belief among the cultures
differ significantly. This difference in the spiritual and the ethnic background change the
requirement of effective communication. Under effective communication in cross-cultural
environment signifies use of both verbal and non-verbal communication skills like the touch,
eye contact, silence and gestures (Renzaho et al., 2013). Effective cross-cultural
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2

2
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
communication skills are important in creating provision for culturally sensitive health care
environment under hospital and community settings. The two-way communication between
the indigenous and non-indigenous people, the clinical and the patients can be regarded as an
important provision in healthcare as it helps in understanding the culture and the history of
the patient (Renzaho et al., 2013). According to Thackrah and Thompson (2013), effective
communication under a culturally safe healthcare environment helps to increase the
likelihood of generating beneficial or positive relationship with the patient and the nurses.
Effective communication also helps to increase the sense of confidence or self-empowerment
of the Aboriginal patients and thereby increasing their capacity to understand the disease
related information, the process of diagnosis and the path of management. This helps to
increase patient’s participation in the care plan and thereby helping to improve the overall
health-related outcomes. This in turn helps to generate culturally competent environment
where the decision of the Aboriginal people is valued. Understanding about the therapy,
decreases the likelihood of misunderstanding while reduction in the rate of non-compliance.
All these further help to improve health related outcomes while promoting culturally safe
environment. Effective communication also helps to improve respect and reputation among
patient and the healthcare professionals (Queensland Health 2012).
Importance of health literacy in providing culturally safe environment
Health literacy is recognised as a significant influence on the quality and safety of
healthcare and as important determinants of health. It is defined as the collection of skills and
knowledge that are required to understand and to use information associated with the health-
related issues like substance abuse, disease prevention, treatment and safety. Proper health
literacy of the healthcare professionals helps to increase the domain of fundamental literacy,
science literacy, civic literacy and cultural literacy (Lowell, et al., 2014). Under these, civic
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2

3
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
literacy and cultural literacy comes under important consideration while promoting culturally
safe environment. Under civic literacy, a healthcare professional become aware about the
prevailing health issues of the public and thereby increasing their knowledge in getting
involved in the overall decision making process about the health of the patient. On the other
hand, cultural literacy increases the ability of recognise the collective spiritual and cultural
believes of the patient and their family members. Increase in the knowledge about the current
healthcare concerns and cultural or spiritual belief of the indigenous group of population
helps the nursing and the healthcare professionals to frame person-centred care plan. This
person centred care plan not only upholds the physical health requirement but also gives
equal important of the mental health needs of the individuals depending on their cultural
background. All these help promote a culturally competent healthcare environment where the
values and believes of the indigenous population is addressed with due respect (Lambert et
al., 2014).
Rationale of the presentation
The main target group of this presentation are the nursing professional. It is the
nursing professionals who spend the majority of the time with the patients while their stay in
the hospital or under the community care settings. They are the first point of contact for
patients during medical emergency. Such enlightening them about the important of the
effective communication and health literacy in establishing culturally safe environment in
healthcare will help to improve the overall health outcome of the indigenous or the
Aboriginal population residing in Australia (Kitson et al., 2013). According to Godding
(2014), the heath of the population residing in Australia has markedly improved during the
latter half of the twentieth century. However, these health improvements in Australia is still
characterised by significant level of health inequality. These health inequalities’ increase the
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2

4
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
morbidity and the mortality rate among the Aboriginals. Increase in the overall competence
of health literacy and the effective communication among the nursing professionals will help
to generate a culturally competent environment for the Aboriginals. Under this culturally
competent environment the values, believes and the voices of the indigenous population in
Australia or the people who are from culturally and linguistically diverse communities
(CALD) will be heard and respected. This will increase their overall access to care and
participation in the care plan and thereby helping to decrease the overall health inequalities in
Australia (Betancourt, Corbett & Bondaryk, 2014).
Conclusion
Thus from the above discussion it can be concluded that culturally safe environment
is an important aspect of health care for the indigenous population. Thus it is the duty of the
nursing professionals to refine their skills of effective communication and indulge in health
literacy in order to promote a culturally safe environment for the Aboriginals. Gaining health
literacy about the cultural and the spiritual beliefs of the Aboriginals helps the nursing
professionals to work on their effective communication skills while providing care to the
indigenous group of population. The effective communication skills helps to extract proper
health related information from the patient and at the same time helps to uphold their cultural
belief and values. This culturally competent approach helps to increase the provision of care
for the Aboriginals and thereby helping to reduce health inequalities.
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2

5
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
References
Betancourt, J. R., Corbett, J., & Bondaryk, M. R. (2014). Addressing disparities and
achieving equity: cultural competence, ethics, and health-care
transformation. Chest, 145(1), 143-148. https://doi.org/10.1378/chest.13-0634
Godding, R. (2014). The persistent challenge of inequality in Australia's health. The Medical
journal of Australia, 201(8), 432. doi: 10.5694/mja14.c1020
Kitson, A., Marshall, A., Bassett, K., & Zeitz, K. (2013). What are the core elements of
patient‐centred care? A narrative review and synthesis of the literature from health
policy, medicine and nursing. Journal of advanced nursing, 69(1), 4-15.
https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2648.2012.06064.x
Lambert, M., Luke, J., Downey, B., Crengle, S., Kelaher, M., Reid, S., & Smylie, J. (2014).
Health literacy: health professionals’ understandings and their perceptions of barriers
that Indigenous patients encounter. BMC health services research, 14(1), 614.
doi: 10.1186/s12913-014-0614-1
Lowell, A., Schmitt, D., Ah Chin, W., & Connors, C. (2014). Provider Health Literacy,
cultural and communication competence: towards an integrated approach in the
Northern Territory.Access date: 15th September 2018. Retrieved from:
https://digitallibrary.health.nt.gov.au/prodjspui/bitstream/10137/885/1/Health
%20literacy%20communication%20and%20cultural%20competence%20towards
%20an%20integrated%20approach%20in%20Indigenous%20health%20care.pdf
Pauly, B. B., McCall, J., Browne, A. J., Parker, J., & Mollison, A. (2015). Toward cultural
safety. Advances in Nursing Science, 38(2), 121-135.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000070
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2

6
HSC 230 ASSESSMENT 2
Queensland Health. (2012). Communicating effectively with Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander people. Version: 1. Access date: 15th September 2018. Retrieved from:
https://www.cultura.org.au/sites/default/files/2017-02/Communicating%20effectively
%20with%20Aboriginal%20and%20Torres%20Strait%20Islander%20people_1.pdf
Renzaho, A. M. N., Romios, P., Crock, C., & Sønderlund, A. L. (2013). The effectiveness of
cultural competence programs in ethnic minority patient-centered health care—a
systematic review of the literature. International Journal for Quality in Health
Care, 25(3), 261-269. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzt006
Thackrah, R., & Thompson, S. (2013). Refining the concept of cultural competence: building
on decades of progress. Medical Journal of Australia, 199(1), 35-38. doi:
10.5694/mja13.10499
Family name: First name: Student number: HSC 230 Assessment 2