Oldal 251 [251]
SAFELY EMBRACING CULTURE: THE ADEQUACY OF THE CULTURAL SAFETY PARADIGM...
This paper explores the ethical considerations of the cultural safety
paradigm in a Canadian and American context. Specifically, I critique the
ways in which the paradigm succeeds and fails to provide for the needs of
Indigenous persons by way of striving for cultural understanding. Through
my analysis, I demonstrate that, although the paradigm improves on its
predecessors, it enforces the same colonial ideals it aims to avoid. As such, I
suggest that we revise and reconsider how healthcare should frame a pursuit
of Indigenous cultural understanding.
CULTURAL SAFETY
THE PARADIGM
The term “cultural safety” originates from the work of a small group of Maori
(New Zealand Indigenous) nursing students in 1992.** While attending
nursing school, this group of students grew increasingly concerned about their
social and intellectual safety amongst their peers. The vast majority of these
peers were descendants of British colonists, and the culture they exhibited
and embodied was oppressively settler-focused. In other words, these Maori
students not only felt that their voices fell on deaf ears, but also that the
foundations of their nursing education relied on principles that were established
with the colonial oppression of Indigenous persons in mind. At the same time,
New Zealand was experiencing a rapid influx of Maori individuals into urban
centres,”* many of whom did not trust formal healthcare services to adequately
care for their needs for the very same reasons that the Maori students felt
unsafe.? This confluence of factors generated a great deal of tension between
Maori individuals and New Zealand’s formal healthcare services. However, the
groups found themselves at an impasse. On one hand, it was clear that New
Zealand’s healthcare system needed to address its inadequate treatment of
Maori individuals for the sake of their patient’s health and safety. On the other,
the core operational principles of their healthcare provision (e.g., respect for
persons, beneficence, non-maleficence, etc.: the very same principles used in
North American healthcare) are, despite their implicit tendencies towards
colonial ideals, good principles that should not be completely thrown out.
To appeal to both hands, the aforementioned nursing students got to work
Carrie Bourassa — Eric Oleson — Janet McElhaney, Cultural Safety, 2016, [in press].
Marcie Snyder — Kathi Wilson, Urban Aboriginal Mobility in Canada: Examining the
Association with Health Care Utilization, Social Science and Medicine, Vol. 75, No. 12
(2012), 2420.
Thomas Harding, Cultural Safety: A Vital Element for Nursing Ethics., Nursing Praxis in
New Zealand, Vol. 29, No. 1 (2013), 4-11.
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