Essay on Treaty of Waitangi, Maori Health, Cultural Safety in Nursing

This essay delves into the crucial relationship between the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori health, and cultural safety within the context of nursing practice in New Zealand. It begins by defining cultural safety and its origins, emphasizing its significance in providing effective care for Maori individuals and families. The essay explores the historical context of the Treaty of Waitangi and its implications for Maori health outcomes, highlighting the principles of partnership, protection, and participation as essential guidelines for healthcare professionals. Furthermore, it discusses nursing strategies such as therapeutic communication and collaboration that exemplify these principles, aiming to foster improved health outcomes for the Maori community. The essay underscores the importance of cultural sensitivity and self-awareness in nursing practice, advocating for a healthcare environment that respects and acknowledges the unique cultural identities and needs of Maori patients. References to relevant literature support the arguments, underscoring the importance of the Treaty of Waitangi and cultural safety in achieving positive health outcomes for Maori individuals and the community as a whole.

Running head: NURSING 1
Treaty of Waitangi
Name:
Institution Affiliation:

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Cultural safety is a concept which is drawn from the work of Maori nurse of New
Zealand. It is defined as an efficient nursing exercise of an individual or even family from a
specific culture established upon an individual or a family (Came, Cornes & McCreanor, 2018).
Within this essay it would examine the relationship between the Treaty of Waitangi, Maori
health and also cultural safety. Furthermore, it could discuss nursing methods that illustrates
concepts of protection, partnership, together with participation.
The treaty of Waitangi, cultural safety and Maori are invariably interconnected. The treaty was
between Maori and British crown. At the time the death rates was high due to wars and diseases.
Maori at the time was the minority group in New Zealand and they did not have health equality
like others who were not Maori (Wepa, 2015). To help Maori improve their health status, the
treaty was signed. The health professional needed to follow the three principles provided within
the treaty: Partnership, protection and participation to help Maori improve their health (Wepa,
2015). The principle of partnership emphasizes that nurses need to maintain therapeutic
relationship with Maori to establish health outcomes that is accepted. On the principle of
participation enables Maori to be involved in decision making of their care (Wepa, 2015). On the
last principle, protection of the cultures as well as the beliefs of Maori are important before the
nurses provides any health services. In the same sense cultural safety helps to recognize
inequalities within the health care interactions. Therefore, practicing the Treaty of Waitangi and
cultural safety supports quality improvement of service delivery in the health care (Wepa, 2015).
One nursing strategies which explain the Treaty of Waitangi is therapeutic
communication. Communication skills are important to the nurses to enable them educate or
even empower the client (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2011). Through good
communication, nurses will be able to understand Maori culture. Nonetheless, they should never

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presume a patient might adapt to certain set of the cultural belief just by look even though the
patient look they belong to a particular culture. Therefore, when there is good communication
skills the nurses would adapt a good rapport with the client and this would enable establish a
therapeutic relationship which would leads to better health outcomes (Nursing Council of New
Zealand, 2011).
Another nursing strategy utilized to demonstrate the principles in the Treaty is
collaboration. The nurses should maintain a therapeutic relationship with their client. This is
achieved through the collaboration which is established toward common objective to attain better
health outcomes for the Maori community (Richardson, Yarwood & Richardson, 2017). The
nurses respect the unique cultural identity of the client through involving them when it comes to
decision making. Consequently, this can strengthen on the patient awareness in regards to their
treatment and emphasizes on positive health outcomes.
Overall, it is important to follow Waitangi Treaty as well as cultural safety to achieve a
positive health outcome amongst Maori community. Self awareness as well as collaboration are
two significant strategies to demonstrate the principles of Waitangi Treaty.

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References
Came, H., Cornes, R., & McCreanor, T. (2018). Treaty of Waitangi in New Zealand public
health strategies and plans 2006–2016. The New Zealand medical journal, 131(1469), 32-
37.
Nursing Council of New Zealand. (2011). Guidelines for culture safety, the Treaty of Waitangi
and Maori health in nursing education and practice. Retrieved from
htt://www.nursingcouncil.org.nz/Publications/Standards-and-guidelines for nurses
Richardson, A., Yarwood, J., & Richardson, S. (2017). Expressions of cultural safety in public
health nursing practice. Nursing inquiry, 24(1).
Wepa, D. (Ed.). (2015). Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. Cambridge University Press.