Cultural Safety in Healthcare Reflection: Values, Beliefs, Behaviors

This assignment is a student's personal reflection on cultural safety within the healthcare environment. The student identifies and analyzes four personal values, beliefs, and behaviors that contribute to their cultural identity and journey towards achieving cultural safety. The reflection explores the social determinants of health, emphasizing the importance of understanding patients' cultural, social, and economic backgrounds. It discusses the impact of stigmas and biases, advocating for health equity and a patient-centered approach. The student highlights the significance of empathy, evidence-based practice, and effective communication in providing culturally safe care. The reflection also addresses the health disparities faced by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, emphasizing the need for tailored healthcare approaches and the involvement of Aboriginal Health Workers. Ultimately, the student articulates how their values, such as empathy, respect, and responsibility, can promote cultural safety and improve patient outcomes. The assignment incorporates peer-reviewed literature to support the analysis and demonstrates an understanding of the key principles of culturally safe practice.

Running head: CULTURAL SAFETY IN HEALTHCARE
CULTURAL SAFETY IN HEALTHCARE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors note:

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PART-1
Created by
the Author

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PART-2
I believe that health care profession is an integral part of a community and society, the
healthcare professionals like nurses, general practitioners or GP, health workers and
pharmacists play a crucial role in elevating the livelihood of a society and community. In this
assignment I have described four of my personal values, my beliefs and my behaviours
opinions when it comes to cultural safety in healthcare profession.
There are various parameters which determine the well-being of a person, and those
are referred to as social determinants of health and therefore, it is important to understand the
cultural back ground, social background as well as economic background of the person when
treating the person (Braveman & Gottlieb, 2014). The socio-economic as well as cultural
background can contribute towards livelihood as well as health of the person. In my opinion
there are different stigmas and biases that could lead to delayed action as well as health care
avoidance. There are evidences linked to poverty, mental health issues as well as experience
of discrimination in the health care domain. It could be understood that our approach towards
the inequalities and inequities in the healthcare profession must be changed and addressed.
According to Paul et al. (2015), there are social stigma and discrimination that are faced by
people who have encountered with illicit substance abuse. Therefore, health equity is an
important when it comes to healthcare. The patient centred approach has a strong alignment
with the evidence based practice in relation to the cultural safety. When I am treating a
patient the only motivation which works in the professional health care domain is empathy
towards patients so that I can treat the patient well. Therefore, to enable this, I believe that
evidence based practice is an excellent way to understand the patient centred treatment as
well as involve clinical research when comes to the treatment. According to Melnyk et al.
(2014) the evidence based approach can provide better and positive patient outcomes in
reference to the context care and cultural safety in the healthcare settings.

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In my opinion working and managing the clients and patients hugely involves
communication with the patients, my peers as well other health workers. The therapeutic use
of myself can give me a personal reflection and space where I can understand my personal
professional values. A good interaction with patients helps me maintain an empathetic as
well as a lucid understanding of the patient’s values about his or her problems. I believe that
building empathetic relationship with patients would make the patient outcomes better and
more efficient. According to Neff and Pommier (2013), the empathetic approach towards the
healthcare approach has been linked with lesser personal distress and better intake
perspective. The empathetic approach can further give buttress to the primary health care as
well as interdisciplinary framework (Flemmer, Dekker & Doutrich, 2014). Therefore, from
my personal experience, the empathetic approach towards the patient care who come for
healthcare services is important. I think that good communication practice inculcates good
professional behaviour as well. I believe that there should be continuous development and
practice of knowledge as well. It is due to the reason that, medical science is evolving day by
day therefore, I believe continuous up gradation of knowledge and practice very important for
the patient care as well for our personal involvement of knowledge and education. According
to Daly, Speedy and Jackson (2017), cross cultural communication is very important is in
order to understand the cultural competency which can be both verbal as well non-verbal.
Furthermore, Daly, Speedy and Jackson (2017) argued that cultural competencies can be
observed on the basis of own cultural assessment, by which I will be able to relate and
understand the cultural diversity.
Going by the diversity of Australia, I believe that there are various cultures and
communities present in our country and it is important for me to be respectful the cultural
diversity when it comes to the cultural safety in healthcare. There are different values and
principles that play an imperative part when it comes to working in the professional domain.

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There is a rising cause of cardiovascular diseases among the Aboriginals and Torres Strait
Islander peoples, there is overall poorer health in comparison to the general Australian
Population (Artuso et al., 2013). Apart from the poor health of the Aboriginals and Torres
Strait Islander peoples there is higher prevalence of cancer among them (Newman et al.,
2013). Considering these aspects, I believe that cultural safety to the Indigenous people is an
important priority to understand the people with such problem. There are different necessities
of different people to understand these special requirements and needs, we healthcare
professionals are required to implement a tailor made healthcare approach. It is evident that
the chronic and non communicable diseases contribute towards the 70% of the total burden of
illness in the Australian population and it is going to increase in the coming years (Mirzaei et
al., 2013). Moreover patient centred approach help increase the patient engagement,
satisfaction as well compliance. I believe that the sense of respect and responsibility are the
essential parameters when it comes to the cultural safety. My values also include being
compassionate, which helps in therapeutic use of myself as well as others. I think as a health
care professional, I should aim at reducing the patient anxiety especially among the
Indigenous who reside in the rural areas and are not able avail the primary health care needs,
for that to happen, understanding and respecting their cultural values is an important
aspect. Involving healthcare professionals or health workers who belong to that particular
community can also establish a cultural safety and also establish health promotion.
Aboriginal Health Worker or AHW is one such organization which would help strengthen the
workforce planning and also refer to the shortages in the rural and remote areas (Australian
Government-Department of Health, 2019). Moreover, I believe that it is an alignment with
the National Strategic Framework for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health which is
aimed at improving the cultural safety, as well as justice.

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I have pointed out my beliefs and values that could help in establishing better cultural
safety among the people when it comes to the health care settings. I believe that empathetic
approach, patient centred approach, evidence based practice, inculcating respect and
responsibility and understanding and respecting the cultural values and beliefs can ensure a
better cultural safe and health equity among the people.

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References:
Artuso, S., Cargo, M., Brown, A., & Daniel, M. (2013). Factors influencing health care
utilisation among Aboriginal cardiac patients in central Australia: a qualitative
study. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 83.
Australian Government-Department of Health. (2019). Health workforce. Retrieved from:
http://www.health.gov.au/internet/main/publishing.nsf/Content/Health
%20Workforce-2
Braveman, P., & Gottlieb, L. (2014). The social determinants of health: it's time to consider
the causes of the causes. Public health reports, 129(1_suppl2), 19-31.
Daly, J., Speedy, S. and Jackson, D., 2017. Contexts of nursing: An introduction. Elsevier
Health Sciences.
Flemmer, N., Dekker, L., & Doutrich, D. (2014). Empathetic partnership: An
interdisciplinary framework for primary care practice. The Journal for Nurse
Practitioners, 10(8), 545-551.
Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher‐Ford, L., Long, L. E., & Fineout‐Overholt, E. (2014). The
establishment of evidence‐based practice competencies for practicing registered
nurses and advanced practice nurses in real‐world clinical settings: proficiencies to
improve healthcare quality, reliability, patient outcomes, and costs. Worldviews on
Evidence
‐Based Nursing, 11(1), 5-15.
Mirzaei, M., Aspin, C., Essue, B., Jeon, Y. H., Dugdale, P., Usherwood, T., & Leeder, S.
(2013). A patient-centred approach to health service delivery: improving health
outcomes for people with chronic illness. BMC health services research, 13(1), 251.

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Neff, K. D., & Pommier, E. (2013). The relationship between self-compassion and other-
focused concern among college undergraduates, community adults, and practicing
meditators. Self and Identity, 12(2), 160-176.
Newman, C. E., Gray, R., Brener, L., Jackson, L. C., Johnson, P., Saunders, V., ... & Treloar,
C. (2013). One size fits all? The discursive framing of cultural difference in health
professional accounts of providing cancer care to Aboriginal people. Ethnicity &
health, 18(4), 433-447.