Cultural Safety Position Statement: Westmead Hospital, Australia

This report presents a cultural safety position statement developed for Westmead Hospital in Australia. It begins by outlining the hospital's commitment to cultural safety, emphasizing its understanding of culture as a socio-political paradigm and its recognition of the adverse outcomes resulting from a lack of cultural safety between patients and nurses. The report highlights the crucial role of nurses in delivering culturally safe health services and the importance of health literacy and effective communication in moving beyond mere awareness. The position statement underscores the hospital's support for cultural safety as a critical component of nursing care, encompassing cultural consciousness, awareness, competence, respect, and knowledge. It then explores the rationale behind the statement, emphasizing the importance of health literacy and effective communication in providing culturally safe healthcare environments, addressing external influences like media, and the barriers to implementing a position statement such as lack of cooperation and inflexibility. The report concludes by discussing the impact of effective communication on patient satisfaction, adherence to medical recommendations, and overall health outcomes. The report also includes references to support the position statement, including the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's Code of Ethics.

Running Head: cultural position statement 1
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Part I
Cultural Safety Position Statement
Westmead Hospital
Westmead hospital in Australia began in the year 1978, and the hospital is considered a main
hospital in Sydney, consisting of a teaching hospital of Sydney medical school. The
organization at both local and national level supports and promotes students, patients and
medical professionals in Australia (Westmead Hospital, n.d). We are an association-based
establishment, and we are ruled by countrywide selected guidelines of the medical board of
Australia.
We understand that culture is more than just practices, norms and beliefs. We know it as a
social-political paradigm with fundamental relations of power, which is passed to the rest
through history. Westmead hospital in (Sydney) Australia, recognizes that the absence of
cultural safety between patients and nurses has been confirmed to produce adverse outcomes,
poor quality of care, and to marginalize patients. We are sure that the nurses are the strength
of the health system of Australia and have a critical role in giving out health services that are
safe culturally to Australia as a community or a nation. Such as nurses often work in forefront
positions, their capability to do this efficiently is vital (Westmead Hospital, n.d). By having
ideas on health literacy and effective communication, we are able to understand that cultural
safety takes us past difference acknowledgement and awareness. Health literacy and effective
communication are essential because we know that cultural safety emphases on differential
on the power that are important in delivering health care and remedying seen inequalities
through practice change and education.
Westmead hospital serves the purpose of strengthening of our efficiency in promoting nurses
in Australia. Additionally, Westmead hospital in Sydney supports the engagement and

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safeguarding of individuals in nursing. Cultural safety is crucial to tracking both of these
guidelines. WestMead hospital outlooks cultural safety as the end step on a scale of care of
nursing, which consists of cultural consciousness, cultural awareness, cultural competence,
cultural respect, and cultural knowledge. The caregiver cannot define cultural safety since
cultural safety is the experience of the recipient.
WestMead Hospital supports them by encouraging cultural safety framework to notify
behaviours and attitudes in care provision by health professionals to the Australia community
or the nation at large so that the people and families will feel secure, respected and safe
culturally (Westmead Hospital, n.d) . Consequently, to acquire this cultural safety should be
implanted in every phase of nursing profession. Confusion has consistently existed,
especially with languages linking to cultural safety, for example, cultural respect, cultural
sensitivity, cultural competence and cultural knowledge. Confusion has continuously existed,
especially with languages associated with cultural safety, for example, cultural respect,
cultural sensitivity, cultural competence and cultural knowledge.
Position
The establishment inspires that people have the authority to live a life that is healthy,
endowed and harmless with robust influences to the community and nation. The organization
is particular that Australians are prospective to strive for health care access and thus acquire
improved health outcomes by having access to respective and culturally safe services.
Australia holds a particular political, social and economic situations based on the past
incident that resulted in power inequality that existed in Australia society. Health is a
complex issue that requires special attention, primarily, since it reflects on critical issues that
the country experience, such as new disease introduction, racism and cultural and dogmatic
establishments imposition.

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Part II
A cultural safety position statement is crucial because it highlights the strength, self-
reflection engagement, understanding and acknowledgement of the organization (Remenyi,
Carapetis, Wyber, Taubert, & Mayosi, 2013). Health literature and effective communication
of students and medical practitioners recognises that cultural safety is the ending step on a
scale in which regular change occurs within an association or facility, and personal health
workers grow awareness of their individuality and how it influences on provision of care for
the Australian individuals (Guerin, & Battle, 2014). In Australia, several reports have been
developed to show the link between optimistic health and the outcomes of employment for
the Australian and discrimination absence and cultural safety presence. WestMead Hospital
offers a leaning shoulder to the Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia's Code of Ethics
for Nurses (2008) and Code of Ethics for Midwives (2008), which speaks the complicated
link and working relationship between the rights and health of humans in shaping care
provided outcomes to Australians. By having ideas on health literacy and effective
communication, we are able to understand that cultural safety takes us past difference
acknowledgement and awareness (Cornett, 2009). Health literacy and effective
communication are essential because we know that cultural safety emphases on differential
on the power that are important in delivering health care and remedying seen inequalities
through practice change and education (Sinclair, Morley, Rodriguez-Mañas et al.,2012).
Effective communication deliberates that cultural safety unavailability and institutional
discrimination hinders the preservation and conscription of the student, nurses, midwives and
graduate Australians (Amalraj, Starkweather, & Naeim, 2009). Australians are diverse,
culturally, ethnically, and linguistically. Additionally, most share holistic health
understanding. Nurses provide care, case management and education to a progressively
different patient population with a chord of cultural, linguistic, and health literacy barriers.

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Health literacy and effective communication share a common bond since the two cannot do
without the other. For example, health literacy is limited and poor health maybe as a result of
poor quality of communication. Additionally, communication is one of the healthcare basis
(Dickens, Lambert, Cromwell, & Piano, 2013). This is because the interaction of healthcare
depends on effective communication. For example discussing the benefits and risks of
treatment, creating an appointment, registration, discussion of signs and symptoms, and
understanding the instructions of care. Effective communication is connected to enhanced
patient contentment, medical adherence recommendation and outcomes of health. Many
healthcare establishments currently are confident that communication is super useful when it
is patient-focused or approachable to the needs, values and preferences of the patient. While
patient-focused communication is described often only in individual clinician-patient terms
relations (Dickens, Lambert, Cromwell, & Piano, 2013). Healthcare establishment has a role
in expediting patient-focused communication in all forms, comprising of patients forms, the
educational materials of patients, establishment signage and better communicators through
sufficient training.
Subsequently, healthcare organizations must use patient-focused approaches to tackle
populations that may not know both written and oral information that is represented in a
different language (Dickens, Lambert, Cromwell, & Piano, 2013). For example, patients that
do not understand English minimized health literacy or cultural background that is not
understood the staff of the system of health care and the hospital. Difficulties in health are
experienced when there is miscommunication thus affecting patient population. Therefore to
tackle this problem, it is essential to understand and improve communication. Additionally, it
is a fundamental national health policy goal.
External factors like media contribute to culturally safe practice in the health environment.
This is because effective communication through media is fast compared to other methods of

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communication, more especially oral communication. In contemporary society, media plays a
significant role in the lives of people and thus influencing every decision made both positive
and negative (Kahan, enkins‐Smith, & Braman, 2011). As discussed above, the interaction of
healthcare depends on effective communication, in the case of miscommunication by the
media might result in culturally unsafe practice in the health environment and vice versa.
Nurses are in the correct position to enable the link between health literacy, culture, and
language to maximize the outcomes of health for cultural patient diversity (Grant & Luxford,
2011). Language needs to be addressed in any interaction considered to address the cultural
diversity of patients and health literacy because literacy skills are affected by culture and
language — for example, beliefs and behaviours found in a patient.
Australians are prospective to strive for health care access and thus acquire improved health
outcomes by having access to respective and culturally safe services; additionally, perception,
communication and prioritization of needs are barriers in the implementation of a position
statement (Wynia, & Osborn, 2010). Additionally, the lack of cooperation from the members
of the organization may result in inflexibility when it comes to the creation and
implementation of a position statement.
Consequently, other barriers that hinder implementation of position statement include
struggle in altering the current practice idea. As discussed above, it is complicated to change
the ways already adopted; this is because people are not ready to accept change, because of
shock and stress resulting from modifications of either models or guidelines (Swinkels, van
Peppen, Wittink, Custers et al., 2011).
Confrontation and disapproval from colleagues hinder the implementation of position
statements. This lowers the esteem of an individual making one to give up. Thus proposed
verses end up unexecuted.

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Last but not least, a lack of trust in study and evidence hinders implementation. Other
members believe that the proposed ideas cannot work, thus pay less attention to it. This
results in the abandonment of great ideas that may improve the operational circumstance of
the establishment (Swinkels, van Peppen, Wittink, Custers et al., 2011).
Understanding of the barriers will assist in improving research or study translation;
additionally, guideline information needs to be clear, recent and necessary for use by others;
it is also essential to address misunderstood information.

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Reference
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treatment decision-making in older cancer patients. Ethics, 23(4).
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emergency nursing, 19(1), 53-57.
Cornett, S. (2009). Assessing and addressing health literacy. Online Journal of Issues in
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Dickens, C., Lambert, B. L., Cromwell, T., & Piano, M. R. (2013). Nurse overestimation of
patients' health literacy. Journal of health communication, 18(sup1), 62-69.
Grant, J., & Luxford, Y. (2011). ‘Culture it’s a big term isn’t it’? An analysis of child and
family health nurses’ understandings of culture and intercultural
communication. Health Sociology Review, 20(1), 16–27. doi:
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Guerin, N. A., & Battle, J. (2014). Health Care and Indigenous Aus 2. Red Globe Press.
Kahan, D. M., Jenkins‐Smith, H., & Braman, D. (2011). Cultural cognition of scientific
consensus. Journal of risk research, 14(2), 147-174.
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statement of the World Heart Federation on the prevention and control of rheumatic
heart disease. Nature Reviews Cardiology, 10(5), 284.
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Dunning, T. (2012). Diabetes mellitus in older people: position statement on behalf of
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Diabetes Working Party for Older People (EDWPOP), and the International Task

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Force of Experts in Diabetes. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association,
13(6), 497-502.
Swinkels, R. A., van Peppen, R. P., Wittink, H., Custers, J. W., & Beurskens, A. J. (2011).
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Westmead Hospital. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.wslhd.health.nsw.gov.au/Westmead-
Hospital.
Williamson, M., & Harrison, L. (2010). Providing culturally appropriate care: a literature
review. International journal of nursing studies, 47(6), 761-769.
Wynia, M. K., & Osborn, C. Y. (2010). Health literacy and communication quality in health
care organizations. Journal of health communication, 15(S2), 102-115.

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