Abstract
This chapter discusses the movement away from “cultural competence” toward the negotiation of “culturally safe” practices and environments for engaging diverse communities. Firstly, the concept of cultural competency is introduced, and the strengths and limitations of this model discussed. Cultural safety is then presented as a model that extends beyond the acquisition of practitioner skills and knowledge, requiring a broader examination of power differentials inherent in research and practice, as well as concerted efforts to address such issues. Readers are provided with examples of how cultural safety can be operationalized to promote social inclusion. The chapter highlights the roles of a variety of collaborators required to ensure culturally safe approaches that engage individuals, communities, and systems. The chapter draws on upon intersectionality theory to facilitate consideration of the multiple and overlapping ways in which culturally safe approaches to research and practice can improve social inclusion and population health outcomes. The chapter concludes with a summary of the key elements of cultural safety and a guide to their implementation in research and practice.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Anderson, W. (2003). The cultivation of whiteness: Science, health and racial destiny in Australia. Basic Books.
Audigier, F. (2000). Basic concepts and core competencies for education for democratic citizenship. Council of Europe Strasbourg.
Australian Bureau of Statistics. (2017). Personal Safety Survey 2016. ABS cat. no. 4906.0. Australian Government. Retrieved January 25, from http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/4906.0
Bambra, C., Riordan, R., Ford, J., et al. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic and health inequalities. J Epidemiol Community Health, 74, 964–968.
Best, O. (2018). The cultural safety journey an Aboriginal Australian nursing and midwifery context. In O. Best & B. Fredericks (Eds.), Yatdjuligin aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander nursing and midwifery care (2nd ed., pp. 46–64). Cambridge University Press.
Betancourt, J. R. (2003). Cross-cultural medical education: Conceptual approaches and frameworks for evaluation. Academic Medicine, 78(6), 560-569. Retrieved June, from https://journals.lww.com/academicmedicine/Fulltext/2003/06000/Cross_cultural_Medical_Education__Conceptual.4.aspx
Bitney, C. (2012). Broaching racial difference between African American clients and White counselors: Racial identity attitudes and therapy process (Ph.D., New School University). ProQuest Dissertations & Theses A&I. Ann Arbor.
Campinha-Bacote, J. (2002). The process of cultural competence in the delivery of healthcare services: A model of care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 13(3), 181–184.
Cox, L. (2016). Social change and social justice: Cultural safety as a vehicle for nurse activism. In 2nd International Critical Perspectives in Nursing and Healthcare. Retrieved October 31–November 2, from http://sydney.edu.au/nursing/pdfs/critical-perspectives/cox-social-change.pdf
Crenshaw, K. (1989). Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex: A Black feminist critique of antidiscrimination doctrine, feminist theory and antiracist politics. University of Chicago Legal Forum, 140, 139–167.
Curtis, E., Reid, P., Jones, R. J. M., & Limited, P. h. e. h. E. G. P. (2014). Decolonising the academy: The process of re-presenting indigenous health in tertiary teaching and learning. Diversity in Higher Education, 15, 147–165.
De Beer, J., & Chipps, J. J. (2014). A survey of cultural competence of critical care nurses in KwaZulu-Natal. South Afr J Crit Care, 30(2), 50–54.
De Souza, R. (2008). Wellness for all: The possibilities of cultural safety and cultural competence in New Zealand. Journal of Research in Nursing, 13(2), 125–135. https://doi.org/10.1177/1744987108088637.
de Vries, K. M. (2015). Transgender people of color at the center: Conceptualizing a new intersectional model. Ethnicities, 15(1), 3–27.
Dune, T. M., McLeod, K., & Williams, R. (2021). Culture, diversity and health in Australia: Towards culturally safe health care. Routledge.
Dutta, M. J. (2008). Communicating health: A culture-centered approach. Polity Press.
Eckermann, A.-K., Dowd, T., Chong, E., Nixon, L., Gray, R., & Johnson, S. (2010). Binan Goonj: Bridging cultures in aboriginal health (3rd ed.). Churchill Livingstone.
Eisenbruch, M. (2004). The lens of culture, the lens of health: Toward a framework and toolkit for cultural competence. Resource Document, for UNESCO Asia-Pacific Regional Training Workshop on Cultural Mapping and Cultural Di-versity Programming Lens to Safeguard Tangible and Intangible Cultural Expressions and Project Cultural Diversity, Bangkok,
Furlong, M., & Wight, J. (2011). Promoting “critical awareness” and critiquing “cultural competence”: Towards disrupting received professional knowledges. Australian Social Work, 64(1), 38–54.
Glass, N., Annan, S. L., Bhandari, T. B., & Fishwick, N. (2011). Nursing care of immigrant & rural abused women. In J. Humphreys & J. C. Campbell (Eds.), Family violence & nursing practice. Springer Publishing Company, LLC.
Gray, M., & McPherson, K. (2005). Cultural safety and professional practice in occupational therapy: A New Zealand perspective. Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 52(1), 34–42.
Hafford-Letchfield, T., Simpson, P., Willis, P. B., & Almack, K. (2018). Developing inclusive residential care for older lesbian, gay, bisexual and trans (LGBT) people: An evaluation of the Care Home Challenge action research project. Health & Social Care in the Community, 26(2), e312–e320.
Hankivsky, O., Cormier, R., & De Merich, D. (2009). Intersectionality: Moving women’s health research and policy forward. Women’s Health Research Network Vancouver.
Ka‘opua, L. S. I., Tamang, S., Dillard, A., & Kekauoha, B. P. (2017). Decolonizing knowledge development in health research cultural safety through the lens of Hawaiian Homestead residents. Journal of Indigenous Social Development, 5(2), 20–42.
Kirmayer, L. J. (2012). Rethinking cultural competence. Transcultural Psychiatry, (2), 149–164.
Kline, C. C., Godolphin, W. J., Chhina, G. S., & Towle, A. (2013). Community as teacher model: Health profession students learn cultural safety from an aboriginal community. Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, 20(1), 5–17.
McEldowney, R., & Connor, M. J. (2011). Cultural safety as an ethic of care: A praxiological process. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 22(4), 342–349. https://doi.org/10.1177/1043659611414139.
McKenzie, K. (2008). A historical perspective of cultural competence. Ethnicity and Inequalities in Health and Social Care.
Mkandawire-Valhmu, L. (2018). Cultural safety, healthcare and vulnerable populations: A critical theoretical perspective. Routledge.
Moolchaem, P., Liamputtong, P., O’Halloran, P., & Muhamad, R. (2015). The lived experiences of transgender persons: A meta-synthesis. Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services, 27, 143–171.
Morin, A. (2011). Self-awareness part 1: Definition, measures, effects, functions, and antecedents. Social Personality and Psychology Compass, 5(10), 807–823.
National Health and Medical Research Council. (2014). Cultural Competency in health: A guide for policy, partnerships and participation. A. Government.
Nursing Council of New Zealand. (2011). Guidelines for cultural safety, the Treaty of Waitangi and Maori health in nursing education and practice. https://www.nursingcouncil.org.nz/Public/Nursing/Standards_and_guidelines/NCNZ/nursing-section/Standards_and_guidelines_for_nurses.aspx?hkey=9fc06ae7-a853-4d10-b5fe-992cd44ba3de
Olson, R., Bidewell, J., Dune, T., & Lessey, N. (2016). Developing cultural competence through self-reflection in interprofessional education in Australia. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 30(3), 347–354.
Ramsden, I. (2002). Cultural safety and nursing education in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu. Wellington: Victoria University.
Richardson, F. (2012). Editorial: Cultural safety 20 years on time to celebrate or commiserate? Whitireia Nursing Journal, 19, 5–8. http://web.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.cdu.edu.au/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?vid=1&sid=924c14d2-4370-4a11-8a0e-a35740a7b924%40pdc-v-sessmgr01.
Taylor, K., & Guerin, P. T. (2019). Health care and indigenous Australians: Cultural safety in practice (3rd ed.). Red Globe Press. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=TqfKvQEACAAJ.
Tseng, W.-S., & Streltzer, J. (2015). Cultural competence in health care. Springer Science.
Turner, P. (2020). ‘We have lost not one Elder’: NACCHO CEO Pat Turner reflects on Aboriginal community successes in COVID-19. https://www.croakey.org/we-have-lost-not-one-elder-naccho-ceo-pat-turner-reflects-on-aboriginal-community-successes-in-covid-19/
van Barneveld, K., Quinlan, M., Kriesler, P., et al. (2020). The COVID-19 pandemic: Lessons on building more equal and sustainable societies. The Economic and Labour Relations Review., 31(2), 133–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1035304620927107.
Vaughan, C., Murdolo, A., Murray, L., Davis, E., Chen, J., Block, K., Quiazon, R., & Warr, D. (2015). ASPIRE: A multi-site community-based participatory research project to increase understanding of the dynamics of violence against immigrant and refugee women in Australia. BMC Public Health, 15, n/a.
Wepa, D. (Ed.). (2015). Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand (2nd ed.). Cambridge University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 Springer Nature Switzerland AG
About this entry
Cite this entry
Dune, T., Williams, R., McLeod, K., Cavaleri, R., Workman, A. (2022). Social Inclusion and Cultural Competence. In: Liamputtong, P. (eds) Handbook of Social Inclusion. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89594-5_8
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-89594-5_8
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-030-89593-8
Online ISBN: 978-3-030-89594-5
eBook Packages: MedicineReference Module Medicine