Cultural safety has been promoted by its New Zealand proponents as an effective process for managing cultural risk in health care and improving the cultural responsiveness of mainstream health services when delivering care to culturally diverse populations. Its effectiveness in this regard has not, however, been comprehensively investigated. A key purpose of this study was to explore and describe what is known and understood about the notion of cultural safety and its possible application to and in Australian health care domains. Findings from the study indicate that the notion of cultural safety is conceptually problematic, poorly understood, and underresearched and, unless substantially revised, cannot be meaningfully applied to the cultural context of Australia.
Ahuarangi, K. (1996). Creating a safe cultural space. Kai TiakiNursing New Zealand, 2(10), 13-15.
2.
Allotey, P., Manderson, L., & Reidpath, D. (2002). Addressing cultural diversity in Australian health services. Health Promotion Journal of Australia, 13(2), 29-33.
3.
Anderson, J., Perry, J., Blue, C., et al. (2003). “Rewriting” cultural safety within postcolonial and postnational feminist project: Toward new epistemologies of healing. Advances in NursingScience, 26(3), 196-214.
4.
Centre for Culture Ethnicity and Health. ( 2003). Diversity in hospitals: Responding to the needs of patient and client groups from non-English speaking backgrounds (Policy and resource guide prepared by The Acute Diversity Care Collaboration Program). Melbourne: Author.
5.
Clarke, M. (2005). Preface. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. v-vii). Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand.
6.
Commonwealth of Australia. (1999). Australian multiculturalism for a new century: Towards inclusiveness: A report by the National Multicultural Advisory Council. Canberra : Author.
7.
Correa-Velez, I., Gifford, S., & Bice, S. (2005). Australian health policy on access to medical care for refugees and asylum seekers. Australian and New Zealand Health Policy, 2(23), 1-12.
8.
Coup, A. (1996). Cultural safety and culturally congruent care: A comparative analysis of Irihapeti Ramsden's and Madeleine Leininger's educational projects for practice. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 11(1), 4-11.
9.
Cresswell, J. (1998). Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five traditions. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
10.
Cross, T., Barzon, J., Dennis, K., & Isaacs, R. (1989). Towards a culturally competent system of care: A monograph on effective services for minority children who are severely emotionally disturbed. Washington, DC: CASSP Technical Assistance Center, Georgetown University Child Development Center .
11.
Dey, I. ( 1993). Qualitative data analysis: A user friendly guide for social scientists. London: Routledge .
12.
Eckermann, A., Dowd, T., Chong, E., Nixon, L., Gray, R., & Johnson, S. (2005). Bina? Goonj: Bridging cultures in Aboriginal health (2nd ed.). Sydney: Churchill Livingston/Elsevier.
13.
Eckermann, A., Dowd, T., Martin, M., et al. (1992). Bina? Goonj: Bridging cultures in Aboriginal health. Armidale, NSW: University of New England.
14.
Ellison-Loschmann, L. (2001). Giving a voice to health consumers. Kai TiakiNursing New Zealand, 7(1), 12-13.
15.
Fortier, J.P., & Bishop, D. (2003). Setting the agenda for research on cultural competence in health care: Final report (C. Brach, Ed.). Rockville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health and Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.
16.
Gibbs, K. (2005). Teaching student nurses to be culturally safe: Can it be done? Journal of TransculturalNursing, 16(4), 356-360.
17.
Green, P. (Ed.). (2002). Slices of life: Qualitative research snapshots. Melbourne: RMIT University Press.
18.
Hughes, F., & Gray, N. (2003). Cultural safety and the health of adolescents . British Medical Journal, 327(7412), 457.
19.
Jeffs, L. (2001). Teaching cultural safety the culturally safe way . Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 17(3), 41-50.
20.
Kanitsaki, O. (1996). Rethinking cultural sensitivity. Nursing Inquiry, 3, 11-12.
21.
Kleinman, A., Eisenberg, L., & Good, B. (1978). Culture, illness, and care: Clinical lessons from anthropologic and cross-cultural research. Annals of Internal Medicine, 88(2), 251-258.
22.
Labun, E. (2001). Cultural discovery in nursing practice with Vietnamese clients. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(6), 874-881.
23.
Leininger, M. (1997). Leininger's critique response to Coup's article on cultural safety (Ramsden) and culturally congruent care (Leininger) for practice. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 12(1), 17-23.
24.
Lincoln, Y., & Guba, E. (1985). Naturalistic inquiry. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
25.
McMurray, A. (2004). Culturally sensitive evidence-based practice. Collegian, 11(4), 14-18.
26.
Murray, S., & Skull, S. (2005). Hurdles to health: Immigrant and refugee health care in Australia. Australian Health Review, 29(1), 25-29.
27.
National Health and Medical Research Council. ( 2006). Cultural competency in health: A guide for policy, partnership and participation. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
28.
National Multicultural Mental Health Policy Steering Group. (2004). Framework for the implementation of the National Mental Health Plan 2003-2008 in Multicultural Australia: National Mental Health Strategy. Canberra: Commonwealth of Australia.
29.
Nursing Council of New Zealand. (2002). Guidelines for cultural safety, the treaty of Waitangi, and Maori health in nursing and midwifery education and practice. Wellington : Author.
30.
Papps, E. (2005). Cultural safety: Daring to be different. In D. Wepa (Ed.), Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand (pp. 20-28). Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand.
31.
Patton, M. (1999). Enhancing the quality and credibility of qualitative analysis. Health Services Research, 34(5), 1189-1208.
32.
Patton, M. (2002). Qualitative research and evaluation methods (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
33.
Polaschek, N. (1998). Cultural safety: A new concept in nursing people of different ethnicities. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 27, 452-457.
34.
Proctor, N. (2004). Moving forward together: An international comparison of successful strategies to improve access and equity for people from ethnic minorities. Adelaide: University of South Australia.
35.
Ramsden, I. (2002). Cultural safety and nursing education in Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu. Unpublished doctor of philosophy in nursing thesis, Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand.
36.
Richardson, F., & Carryer, J. (2005). Teaching cultural safety in a New Zealand education program. Journal ofNursing Education, 44(5), 201-208.
37.
Richardson, S. (2003). Aoteaoroa/New Zealand nursing: From eugenics to cultural safety. Nursing Inquiry, 11(1), 35-42.
38.
Sandelowski, M. (1986). The problem of rigour in qualitative research. Advances inNursing Science, 8(3), 27-37.
39.
Sandelowski, M. (2000). Whatever happened to qualitative description? Research inNursing & Health, 23, 334-340.
40.
Smedley, B., Stith, A., & Nelson, A. (Eds.). (2003). Unequal treatment: Confronting racial and ethnic disparities in health care . Washington, DC: Institute of Medicine, The National Academies Press.
41.
Spence, D. (2001). Hermeneutic notions illuminate cross-cultural nursing experiences. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 35(4), 624-630.
42.
Thomson, N., Burns, J., Burrow, S., & Kirov, E. (2004). Overview of Australian indigenous health 2004 . Perth: Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet .
43.
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health. (2001). National standards for culturally and linguistically appropriate services in health care: Final report. Rockville, MD: Author.
44.
Wepa, D. (2003). An exploration of the experiences of cultural safety educators in New Zealand: An action research approach. Journal of TransculturalNursing, 14(4), 339-348.
45.
Wepa, D. (Ed.). (2005). Cultural safety in Aotearoa New Zealand. Auckland: Pearson Education New Zealand.
46.
Williams, R. (1999). Cultural safety—what does it mean for our work practice? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, 23(2), 213-214.
