Cultural Differences Between Indigenous And Non-Indigenous Australians

“Health is influenced by culture and beliefs” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). In order for the nurse to properly care for the patient, she must know and understand the patient’s culture. “Cultural care is a comprehensive model that includes the assessment of a client’s cultural needs, beliefs, and health care practices” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). It is not enough to just know where the patient lives or where he came from. The nurse must embrace the concept of cultural competence and cultural awareness. This requires not only the awareness of the cultural beliefs and values of their patients, but also

Nursing Council New Zealand (2011) defines cultural safety as the effective nursing of a person from another culture by a nurse who has undertaken a process of reflection and recognizes the impact of the nurses culture on own nursing. Irihapeti Ramsden (1946-2003) introduced the term ‘cultural safety’ into the education requirements of New Zealand nursing during the year 1990 (Wepa, 2012). As a result of this, Ramsden produced a document named Kawa Whakaruruhau. The document outlined concerns surrounding Maori health within New Zealand. In response to the publication of Kawa Whakaruruhau the Nursing Council of New Zealand amended, in 1990, the standards of nursing and curriculum assessment processes to include cultural safety (Wepa, 2012). Ramsden and Spoonley (1994) discuss that during the

Cultural competence in nursing is imperative for effective patient care. A nurse must know his or her own values and beliefs as well as knowing about a patient cultural practices in relation to healthcare. Cultural competence is defined by some as: “the learned, shared and transmitted values, beliefs, norms and lifeways of a particular group that guides their thinking, decisions and actions.” Also it is noted that an important change to this definition is “the recognition of the dynamic,

It is well studied by health authorities that the current health statistics of the Indigenous population today are clearly reflected on their health status, due to the impacts of the colonisation process. The relating problems associated with this have resulted in destructive families and communities. It is unquestionable that Indigenous Australians were adapted to the environment in which people lived and had control on every feature of their life during the colonisation period. According to ‘The Deplorable State of Aboriginal Ill Health, Chapter 1’ (2014), studies that show that numerous infectious diseases; such as, smallpox and the flu, were not present in the pre-invasion period. It is also shown that lifestyle diseases such as high BP, diabetes and heart diseases were not known to exist.

By making sure all your practices as a nurse are culturally safe, you will know that you are treating every patient that comes under your care with the respect and standard of care that they require as an individual with their own beliefs. As a nurse, you need to be open minded and open to accepting cultures that may be different to you own so you do not compromise the care of the health consumer, and therefore affect the therapeutic relationship you need to have with the patient to care for them effectively. This is an essential skill that all nurses need to use in every practice they take part

Practicing cultural safety requires nurses to have undertaken personal reflection of their own cultural identity. This enables them to recognise the impact that their personal culture has on their professional practice (Cox & Taua, 2013). This personal reflection should allow the nurse to provide effective care to an individual or family from a different culture (Cox & Taua, 2013). In this essay I will reflect upon two of my own cultural groupings, discuss the concept of “other”, the relevance of cultural safety to nursing practice and how I might care for someone who is culturally different from myself.

Among Aboriginal peoples, there are a number of similar historical and contemporary social determinants that have shaped the health and well-being of individuals, families, communities and nations. Historically, the ancestors of all three Aboriginal groups underwent colonisation and the imposition of colonial institutions, systems, as well as lifestyle disruption. However, distinctions in the origin, form and impact of those social determinants, as well as the distinct peoples involved, must also be considered if health interventions are to be successful. For example, while the mechanisms and impact of colonisation as well as historic and neo-colonialism are similar among all Aboriginal groups. The contemporary outcome of the colonial process

Firstly, a challenge that the nurse may face are the cultural differences in non-verbal communication. For example, “maintaining eye contact during conversation [conveys] respect” in American culture (Potter, 2014, p. 247). However, eye contact is “considered intrusive, threatening, or harmful” in Aboriginal culture (Potter, 2014, p. 247). Whereas patients in Western culture are expressive, Aboriginal patients often control their affect to maintain a calm demeanor (Eliopoulos, 2010, p. 30). Secondly, another challenge that the nurse may face is a language barrier. For instance, the nurse may be unable to communicate with the Aboriginal client in their native language. Alternatively, the Aboriginal client may unable to communicate in a common language with the nurse. Thirdly, a challenge that the nurse may face is the consolidation of traditional Aboriginal and Western healing practices. For instance, Aboriginal culture emphasizes the role of “energy and nature” in the healing process (Potter, 2014, p. 243). However, Western culture has only been recently introduced to this concept (Potter, 2014, p. 243). Whereas Western medicine emphasizes the use of pharmaceutical drugs, traditional Aboriginal medicine “promotes harmony within a community and in the physical and spiritual worlds through sweating and purging,

Critically analyse one of the main challenges, barriers, and enablers for cultural competence in health care when working in a cross-cultural environment.

The main ideas that Lisa Bourque Bearskin is stating in this article is that nurses need to be more sensitive to cultural care. They need to be aware of the issues in healthcare and strive to remove any barriers for certain groups, such as the first nations, and they need to disrupt any unequal relations in the social, political and historical aspect of healthcare. The way this can be done is by shifting their thoughts from cultural competence to cultural safety by way of relational ethics. Cultural competence is explained as the knowledge, skills, and attitudes that nurses need to use to care for cultural differences. Another framework described cultural competence as going through the stages of cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skill, cultural encounter, and cultural desire. Cultural competency works very well when making policies in an agency but this view fosters a view of culture that does not encourage nurses to ask questions. (Bearskin, 2011) Cultural Competence causes different cultures to be put in a box, which cannot be done because cultures are constantly changing and every person’s culture is different. Culture is individual. Lisa Bourque Bearskin goes on to say that cultural safety is what nurses should use for ethical practice. In cultural safety, a nurse must strive to improve health care and its access for all people, while recognizing that there are many different cultures that have a right to be recognized. Bourque

Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and

The poor health position of Indigenous Australians is a contemporary reflection of their historical treatment as Australia’s traditional owners. This treatment has led to Indigenous Australians experiencing social disadvantages, significantly low socio-economic status, dispossession, poverty and powerlessness as a direct result of the institutionalised racism inherent in contemporary Australian society.

Carson, B., Dunbar, T., Chenhall, R. D., & Bailie, R. (2007). Social determinants of Indigenous health. Allen & Unwin.

The outcome of cultural awareness and cultural sensitivity is cultural safety (Berg, 2010). In practicing cultural safety, it is not really expected that health care workers will know all cultures; it is acknowledging and respecting people regardless of their differences and beliefs (Hughes & Farrow, 2006). Moreover, nurses and other health professionals create cultural safe practice when the patients feel safe, respected and understood (Skellet, 2012), as well as if there is a shared understanding and acknowledgement of the unique identity and diversity. Health workers should always consider the cultural and historical background of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, because practicing cultural safety is significant to

38). Thus, in addition to the pain of indigenous dispossession from their land and family, the felt stigma from racism further catalyses emotional disorders in the Indigenous population. As historically alcohol and tobacco were exchange currency for sex and labour, its frequent consumption and soothing effect became a cure for Indigenous pain resulting in 52% Indigenous population smoking tobacco and consuming alcohol that is harmful to their health at twice the percentage of the non-Indigenous population (AIHW, 2007, p. 3). Since tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption are major risk factors to infant mortality, the pertinent negative effects of marginalisation as a product of colonialism is highlighted.