Exploring Cultural Competence in Healthcare: An Australian Perspective

This essay delves into the critical concept of cultural competence in healthcare, emphasizing the pivotal role of registered nurses (RNs) in providing culturally safe care. It begins by defining cultural safety and its significance in addressing diverse patient needs, highlighting the shift from a 'one-size-fits-all' approach to personalized care. The essay then explores three distinct examples of cultural health care needs that may differ from the Australian healthcare model, including the importance of ethnicity and race in healthcare, language and communication barriers, and the unique needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. It analyzes how these needs diverge from existing policies and practices and evaluates the specific actions RNs can take to provide culturally safe care, such as self-reflection, respecting diverse viewpoints, and arranging for translation services. The essay underscores the importance of understanding cultural values, beliefs, and practices to facilitate effective communication and treatment, ultimately promoting equitable healthcare outcomes for all patients.

Running head: CULTURAL COMPETENCE
Cultural competence
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author’s name

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Cultural health care need.................................................................................................................3
Need of ethnicity and race in cultural healthcare....................................................................3
Difference between ethnicity and racism compared to the Australian health care model.......3
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?......................................................4
Cultural health care need.................................................................................................................5
Language and Communication in cultural health care............................................................5
Difference between cultural health care need and Australian health care models..................6
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?......................................................6
Cultural health care need.................................................................................................................7
Cultural health care need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people............................7
Difference between cultural health care need and Australian health care models..................9
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?......................................................9
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction
Cultural safety is an idea relating to the exercise, which states that, how a health
specialist works. It depicts that how people behave with each other in the community, and not
related to their variety as such, so it focusses on the general and fundamental problems and on
the social factors of health. Cultural safety signifies a crucial rational change from delivering
care irrespective of dissimilarity, to health care that makes a list of individual’s distinctive
requirements. It allows nurses and midwives to undergo a continuous course of self-image and
cultural self-awareness, and a salutation of how a nurse or midwife individual culture influences
on care. The continuous up rise of variety of the nation creates chances and encounters for health
care providers, health care systems, and policy-makers to produce and distribute culturally
knowledgeable facilities. Cultural competence can be stated as the capacity of suppliers and
administrations to efficiently distribute health care facilities that will fulfill the social, cultural,
and linguistic requirements of individuals.

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Cultural health care need
Need of ethnicity and race in cultural healthcare
A culturally competent healthcare organization can assist in improving healthcare results and
quality of care, which can add to the abolition of racial and ethnic health differences. Such as
strategies which will move the healthcare organization towards the goal comprising of delivering
relevant practices on cultural competence and cross-cultural problems to health experts and
making policies that decreases organizational and language obstacles to patient care. Ethnicity is
often confused with race. Ethnicity can be defined as the learned beliefs and duties, and holds the
culture which is a part of an individual’s demographic region. The word race can be described
asan individual’s physiological characteristics, such as skin texture, voice, eye colour, hair
colour, and even an individual’s propensity toward genetic disorders.
When a medical facility helps in facilitating treatment without focusing on the ethnicity and on
racial bias has a significant role in healthcare. Individuals who fail to receive proper treatment
due to the ethnicity and racial bias are less probable to receive precautionary services or
treatment, and administration of chronic illnesses. People belonging to the minority compared to
White population do not have a usual access of proper care and do not receive health insurance
also (Horowitz, Lopez & Smith, 2018). It is important that the healthcare facilities should
provide treatment not on the basis of ethnicity or racial bias. It is important that minority groups
should feel that their doctors understand and respect their values and beliefs.

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Difference between ethnicity and racism compared to the Australian
health care model
There are still many Australian Healthcare which categorizes people or patients on the basis of
ethnicity and racism due to which many people like war veterans and refugees do not come
forward to treat their conditions. It is necessary for the Australian health care system, model,
strategies and policies to amend their guidelines so that every person in Australia and non-native
Australians can take the healthcare facilities.
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?
Culturally safe and respectful practices are not any new idea. Nurses and midwives are likely to
involve with all individuals as people in a culturally secured and courteous way, nurture free,
authentic and considerate specialized relations, and obey to their commitments about
confidentiality and secrecy. Nurses and midwives always have a role in providing treatment
which would give the finest possible result for the person they are thoughtful and caring for.
They need to do their duty in cooperation with the person to do so. The fundamental principle of
cultural safety is built upon the cooperative relation in whom the susceptible individual is free to
discuss their nursing care with the nurses. It is the duty of the registered nurses to help the
vulnerable person to discuss their healthcare need even if the RN has to leave behind their usual
task. It is often seen that the leading healthcare structure focuses on changing the behaviors and
attitudes that are deeply rooted in the cultural consciousness of others. Cultural safety demands
the registered nurses to have a level of intellectual, attitude and individual abilities that will help
in improving the communication and collaboration with the patients. Increasing cultural safety is
a procedure that includes individual reflective exercise as a means of identifying standards

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intrinsic in the culture of the nursing practice, and with individual’s own culture, which can
encounter with others (Usher et al., 2017).

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Cultural health care need
Language and Communication in cultural health care
According to a report if there are 20 people in a hospital who can speak in English, there will be
10 or 11 people or 50% people who cannot speak English very well compared to other people. In
a healthcare field, language and communication is a very critical restriction that impacts the
amount and quality of health care received. Such as there are Latinos who are good in speaking
Spanish. They are less likely to go to a doctor or receive any preventive care, such as a
mammography exam or influenza vaccination compared to the White people or the Americans.
Health service use may also be exaggerated by the accessibility of translators. Among the
individuals who are poor in speaking English, they often claim that during a healthcare visit, they
usually use a translator.
Language and communication difficulties create patient displeasure, poor understanding and
obedience, and bad quality of treatment. Latinos who are good in speaking Spanish are
dissatisfied with the treatments they are delivered and are generally seen to be complaining about
their all issues regarding the health care compared to the individuals who are English speakers.
The kind of understandable facility delivered to patients is a significant aspect in the level of
gratification. In a report the different approaches of elucidation has been compared, patients who
utilize special translators are similarly as pleased with the whole health care visit as patients who
utilize multilingual suppliers.

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Difference between cultural health care need and Australian health
care models
There are many people who are non-native Australians. They come to receive healthcare
treatment; however those people are sometimes the Latinos who are incapable to speak in
English. This makes it a restriction for them to converse freely with the healthcare providers and
limit them from receiving healthcare facilities. It is necessary for the Australian health care
system, model, strategies and policies to amend their guidelines so that every person in Australia
and non-native Australians can access the healthcare facilities.
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?
Registered nurses are capable in having better interaction with patients and deliver enhanced
treatment if they comprehend what differentiates the individual’s cultural values, beliefs and
practices from their own. There are certain proposals which can make it easy for the RN to treat
and interact with patients. Such as:
 A RN should reflect that how their own cultural beliefs, values and behaviours
may influence the communication with the patient. If they feel that the communication
has been negatively impacted due to either of their cultural bias then the RN should
consider taking support.
 A RN should admire, comprehend and work with different cultural viewpoints to deliver
effective cure. They should consider discussing with the patient about how they would
like to get the health care and treatment information.
 If the patient is bad at communication due to different language, the RN should consider
arranging a proper translator.

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These way registered nurses can provide culturally safe health care.
Cultural health care need
Cultural health care need for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people
In contrast to the non-native Australian population, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
individuals face substantially high injury and death. On an average, Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander individuals generally live 12 years less in contrast to the non-native Australian
population and also they undergo high rate of chronic illness. Cardiovascular illness is the major
cause of mortality among the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people (Togni et al., 2019).
Provided the evidence of this poor health conditions, it is of worry that accessibility and usage of
primary care facilities by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals is very much low
than it was expected. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals in remote societies are
generally lacking due to the lack of proper healthcare facilities. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander individuals who are living in the urban areas are generally disadvantaged due to lack of
access to proper healthcare facility. Conferring to the 2008 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander Social Survey, it was seen that around 30% of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
individuals of living in urban environments have year age had suffered issues regarding the
accessing of healthcare facilities, and another 10% people failed in reaching the general
practitioner when they really needed (Togni et al., 2019).
It is known that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals are less likely to utilize
healthcare facilities. Various studies have inspected the causes behind why the Aboriginal and

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Torres Strait Islander individuals do not access or engage with healthcare services. It is due to
the absence of culturally proper healthcare facilities, racism or discrimination by healthcare staff
members, excessive cost of healthcare services and absence of time or inability to get
arrangements with the doctors (Togni et al., 2019).
The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals often seek for more than just only medical
services. They seek physical, social and emotional and supportive environment through which
they can build a better relation with the healthcare service providers who will care for more than
just their physical requirements (Togni et al., 2019).
According to a report, when there is a professional from the background of Aboriginal and
Torres Strait Islander which can be either doctor, nurse, or any healthcare worker, it creates a
vital difference in the type of relationship which was formed in the healthcare service. Due to the
mutual cultural heritage and alike life experiences there is a feeling of belongingness and better
understanding compared to a non-Indigenous staff member. Compared to the non-native
healthcare specialists, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff members were able to form
better and healthy relations with the people and utilize those relations to share information, as
well as improve the people’s confidence and trust in the healthcare service (Togni et al., 2019).

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Difference between cultural health care need and Australian health
care models
According to Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia, the code of conduct state that the
nurses and midwives should deliver holistic care. The care should be free from prejudice and
discrimination; challenges acceptance should be based on conjecture and also it should be
culturally secured and respectful for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander peoples. The nurses
and midwives should promote and enable the right to quality and culturally secured and good
healthcare facilities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals. They should also
identify the significance of family, public, and cooperation in the healthcare decision-making
process for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, for the deterrence approaches
and care provision process (NMBA, 2019).
What a RN can do to provide culturally safe health care?
There are certain proposals which can make it easy for the RN to treat and interact with patients.
Such as:
 A RN should reflect that how their own cultural beliefs, values and behaviours
may influence the communication with the patient. If they feel that the communication
has been negatively impacted due to either of their cultural bias then the RN should
consider taking support.
 A RN should admire, comprehend and work with different cultural viewpoints to deliver
effective cure. They should consider discussing with the patient about how they would
like to get the health care and treatment information.

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 If the patient is bad at communication due to different language, the RN should consider
arranging a proper translator.
Conclusion
Through this study, we were able to understand different cultural health care needs which are
required and are different compared to the Australian health care models. We were able to
analyze the roles of registered nurses in providing culturally safe health care. Through this
assessment we are able to identify the cultural health care needs which are required by the
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. There should improvement in the culturally safe
health care services, which will focus on supporting individuals in helping them to live their life
freely despite the chronic illness.

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