Topic 12: Benefits of a culturally safe workplace

Introduction

A Culturally safe workplace is good for clinical outcomes

Research has consistently demonstrated that cultural safety can significantly enhance the nature and the scope of healthcare afforded to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples by:

• Improving access by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members who feel valued and enter into a partnership with you to look after their health.
• Positively impacting both the physical health and psychological health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.
• Enabling more inclusive work environments that support the growth of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health workforce.

A culturally safe workplace is good for everyone

Cultural safety has been articulated in health education and healthcare systems as a decolonising task. It is concerned with values and beliefs as much as individual actions or institutional practices and policies (Ramsden, 2002).

Decolonising an organisation must be intentional, well-resourced and based on ethical, moral and legal motivations for workplaces to learn and apply respectful ways of ensuring Indigenous self-determination and institution-wide responsibility. If done in this way, the achievement of culturally safe workplaces through decolonising tasks has the opportunity to reap benefits for an entire workplace.

Collectively, more culturally safe workplaces and practices can achieve greater access and more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Trainees and Fellows. Achieving this will make a significant contribution to health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

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