Kerri Arcus
School of Health, Whitireia Community ,New zrealand
Title: Teaching Cultural Safety: what informs practice?
Biography
Biography: Kerri Arcus
Abstract
Culturally responsive nursing care is a crucial aspect of effective nursing service delivery. Cultural safety is the approach that has informed nursing practice in Aotearoa New Zealand (NZ) for over three decades. NZRNs must provide evidence that they practice in a culturally safe manner to maintain an Annual Practicing Certificate. Cultural safety is a compulsory component of all NZ nursing undergraduate programmes and these curricula are audited regularly by the Nursing Council of New Zealand. However, despite being a regulated requirement there is minimal research published on how to teach (and assess) cultural safety.
A research project was undertaken to identify best-practice cultural safety teaching and to document pedagogies. Central to cultural safety is an understanding of the bicultural relationship between MÄori, the indigenous population of NZ, and non-MÄori New Zealanders. The research was informed by Appreciative Inquiry. Having gained ethics approval, focus groups were held with eight academic staff from a range of nursing programmes to examine how cultural safety was interpreted in their teaching, in curricula, and to document these practices and examples. Focus groups were recorded, transcribed and analysed for themes.
Findings revealed that nurse teachers adopt a range of strategies and approaches in academic settings and in clinical education environments. The data revealed both personal and structural factors that can either enable or act as barriers to teaching cultural safety. These findings were organised under six overarching themes: critical reflection for transformation, fear of getting it wrong, authenticity, visible versus invisible curriculum, supportive infrastructures, and more research.
Cultural safety is an imperative for nursing in New Zealand. This research advances nursing education by examining what influences the academic and clinical teaching of cultural safety and offers best-practice examples to advance the discourse arounds, and teaching of cultural safety. More research is recommended.