Negative Experience With Respect to Healthcare and Education

Running head: NURSING PRACTICE
NURSING PRACTICE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

NURSING PRACTICE1
Cultural safety is considered to be a social, spiritual and emotionally safe environment
as well as physically safe for the patient that does not assault or challenge their own identity.
According to Thummapol, Barton and Park (2018), it was found that the indigenous people in
the world have a negative experience with respect to healthcare and education. The concept
of cultural safety in the healthcare sector involves addressing the inequity in term of
distribution of power in this particular sector. This involves providing an atmosphere that is
safe and culturally competent in expressing the concerns to the healthcare services in order to
identify the areas that allowing in improving the services. The integration of inputs found in
the community into the healthcare practices will be useful in addressing the inequalities and
thus, improving the experience of the indigenous population. The nursing practice based on
culturally competent and safe environment allows in offering effective and appropriate care
and support to the patient, thus, enhancing the quality of care. The aim of the essay is to offer
a reflective account of the clinical practice placement that identifies explicitly a culturally
safe environment of the Maori community in New Zealand using Driscoll reflective cycle.
This will accurately identify the scenario, the impact of the scenario and future implication of
it using an experiential learning cycle.
I am a third-year nursing student currently working at Wellington Hospital in New
Zealand as a part of clinical practice placement. I was working in this particular healthcare
setting for more than six months and I have gained a wide array of experiences that allowed
me to upgrade my knowledge and skills related to nursing practice. One of the factors that
had gained my attention over the past few months was discriminatory behaviour with the
Maori community people residing in New Zealand. Due to their indigenous aspect, lack of
education and economic stability, they are discriminated in various healthcare settings,
especially in my hospital. According to the opinion of Ministry of Health NZ (2018), the
impact of racism was found to be highest among Asian followed by Maori and Pacific people

NURSING PRACTICE2
where it was lowest among the European. It is one of the most significant issues in the
healthcare sector of New Zealand; thus, having a potential effect contributing to the ethnic
inequalities in health. The issues require urgent addressing because I have found a wide gap
in accessing health services and offer care and support. In a particular situation, I saw that a
Maori woman with pneumonia was admitted in the hospital; however, some of the healthcare
professionals were not comfortable to attend her. My mentor decided to take charge and
established a team of four nurses to take care of the situation. Suess and Mody (2017) opined
that offering care to the patient with an understanding of culture is one of the most
competitive environment that can be offered. This is because it empowers the patient and
healthcare practitioner, thus, enhancing the care quality. As per the opinion of Batbaatar et al.
(2017), the determinant of ‘safe’ care is stated to be one of the most critical aspects of care.
The cultural safety is stated to be associated with the principle of the founding document of
New Zealand, the Treaty of Waitangi. The concepts that are incorporated in this provision are
protection, participation and partnership, which allow in gaining more information from the
patient and addressing all the needs and demands of the patient. From my point of view, this
not only helps in providing appropriate care to the patient also mitigating the issue of
inequalities in healthcare service (Heke, Wilson & Came, 2019). I communicated with her
and initially measured all the vital stats required for assessment. She was afraid to disclose
information because of the predominant cultural discrimination that was occurring in the
country for an extended period of time; however, I used a friendly and evidence-based
approach that allowed her to open up with me thus, establishing a strong relationship. This
was one of the most impactful events in my practice as I was able to intervene and use
culturally safe environment. After the evaluation and assessment, I was able to confirm that
she was suffering from pneumonia that involves a number of diagnostic tests. Her belief and
values were incorporated in the treatment process that aided the process and in twenty days,