Cultural Safety and Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association: A Position Statement

Running head: NURSING ASSIGNMENT
Nursing assignment
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Name of the assignment:
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Nursing Assignment1
Background/ introduction:
Cultural safety is defined as application and accumulation of knowledge of the local population
such as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander. The cultural safety deals with principles, norms and values
of the community (Pauly, McCall, Browne, Parker & Mollison, 2015). In the position paper, the
communication and interaction used in providing cultural safety to the local population is evaluated. In
Australia, the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander requires cultural safety to lead a healthy and
respectful life within the community and hence requires cultural safety. Cultural safety involves
healthcare professionals to examine their own believes, practices ad behaviors (Laverty, McDermott, &
Calma, 2017). Along with the practice, racism and other discrimination has been evaluated. The main of
providing cultural safety is to improve their standard of light as well to provide a stable platform for
them, where they get equal opportunities and respect without facing any decimation based on race, caste
or religious background (Antonsen, 2017). Aboriginal individual have poor health outcomes as
compared with the other communities. The rate of mental illness is maximum in case of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander. Due to the discrimination they face, they went into depression or severe mental
illness. In order to minimise the number of people affected with mental illness or physical disease, some
health care organization works to provide them cultural safety (Baba, Brolan & Hill, 2014). One of such
organization is The Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA). It works to provide cultural
safety to the individual suffering from discrimination based on their race and background. According to
Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association (AIDA), continuous care with respect to cultural awareness
is one of the most important learning in proving cultural safety to the patient or to the minority
population. The next step initiated by the Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association, where the self-
exploration occurs. It is the second step which involves the cultural sensitivity. The cultural safety is

Nursing Assignment2
regarded as the final outcome of the steps or the process. It is multi-dynamic process where the place of
the population from local community facing safety issue based on their race can be changed by the
setting of the community. Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association code of conduct and values
involves cultural safety and also is considered as the key principle of the collaboration agreement of
Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association. The main purpose of Australian Indigenous Doctors’
Association is to enhance cultural safety among the individuals who are from another countries either
for work and studies or permanently settled there. The indigenous population of Australia are more
likely to suffer from such discrimination in their daily life and hence requires cultural safety (Green &
Minchin, 2014). Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association is considered as the peak organization in
the field of healthcare. Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association aims to strongly position to those
areas that lacks cultural safety for the indigenous population. Australian Indigenous Doctors’
Association develops certain strategies which is useful in providing cultural safety to the local
population. It aims to reduce the cultural differences between different races and ensures that the minor
population gets equal respect as compared to the other individual (AIDA.ORG, 2019).
Position statement:
The term position statement is defined as the “a range of evidenced-based statements to
communicate an organisation’s position on key issues of relevance to achieving a healthy Australia,
supported by the best possible healthcare system”.
Australian Indigenous Doctors’ Association holds strong position in order to ensure cultural safety to
the individual who belongs to indigenous population or minor community. It advocates strongly in order
to enhance the strength and respect of the minor communities in the society (Young-Hyman et al.,
2016). It provides cultural safety to the population through (AIDA.ORG, 2019).