Cultural Safety as an Ethic of Care

Abstract

New writings broadening the construct of cultural safety, a construct initiated in Aotearoa New Zealand, are beginning to appear in the literature. Therefore, it is considered timely to integrate these writings and advance the construct into a new theoretical model. The new model reconfigures the constructs of cultural safety and cultural competence as an ethic of care informed by a postmodern perspective. Central to the new model are three interwoven, co-occurring components: an ethic of care, which unfolds within a praxiological process shaped by the context. Context is expanded through identifying the three concepts of relationality, generic competence, and collectivity, which are integral to each client-nurse encounter. The competence associated with cultural safety as an ethic of care is always in the process of development. Clients and nurses engage in a dialogue to establish the level of cultural safety achieved at given points in a care trajectory.

Patient experience in the emergency department: inconsistencies in the ethic and duty of care

“…) and of achieving cultural safety within these (Duke et al . , McEldowney & Connor , Brannelly et al . ).…”

Nursing Education, Cultural Differences, and Political Conflicts: Israeli First‐Person Action Research

“…The main difference between the approaches is that while studying cultural differences is the focus of cultural competence education, in CSE the focus is on power relations, in society in general and between patient and nurse in particular (Ramsden, ). CS influences ways of thinking about nursing education throughout the world (e.g., Arieli, ; McEldowney & Connor, ) and has inspired nursing educators in Israel (e.g., Arieli, Mashiach‐Eizenberg, Hirschfeld, & Friedman, ). However, the core educational strategies of CSE are based on a shared historical narrative (the Treaty of Waitangi) about Maori‐Pakeha relations (Richardson, ).…”

Virtues in Clinical Practice: Teaching Students about the Complexities and Depth of Professional Practice

“…Clinical practice is dynamic, relational, and emotionally charged. It inhabits a number of contexts including that of the client, the practitioner and the therapeutic encounter (McEldowney & Connor, 2011). The client's context includes their perspectives on health and illness, practitioners and therapeutic encounters.…”

“…Self-understanding and professional identity development are continually evolving processes (Fitzmaurice, 2013;McEldowney & Connor, 2011). Critical reflection forms an essential part of health practitioner teaching and learning for its potential for cultivating reflexivity as part of clinical routine (Mezirow, 1997).…”