Oldal 255 [255]
SAFELY EMBRACING CULTURE: THE ADEQUACY OF THE CULTURAL SAFETY PARADIGM...
Cultural
Sensitivity
Least Effective
Cultural
Awareness
Figure 1: The continuum of cultural effectiveness paradigms in healthcare
PARADIGMATIC APPROPRIATION IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES
Ever since it’s creation, the cultural safety paradigm has been misinterpreted
and used in ways in which it was not intended. These difficulties are often
attributed to the paradigm’s vague nature.” ** Since the paradigm’s goals
and values are nearly impossible to quantify in a globally consistent manner,
commensurable data on its impacts is nearly non-existent. Moreover, there
are many ways in which one could interpret values of “holistic care” and
“decolonization”. These phrases come in matters of degrees and manifest
themselves in a myriad of ways. Indeed, the degree to which a healthcare
system is holistic and decolonizing seems more like a general sense than it
does an empirical fact. This being said, the paradigm appears to be at least
marginally beneficial in New Zealand nursing pedagogy when applied as
intended.** Unfortunately, this “intention” along with the cultural relativity
of the paradigm itself does not always transfer when appropriating cultural
safety in Canada and the U.S.
At first glance, appropriating the cultural safety paradigm for North
America seems like a sensible decision. The Indigenous populations of
Canada, New Zealand, and the U.S. were all colonized by the British, are
largely subjected to Western medical systems that prioritize non-pluralistic
biomedical structures, and are minorities in their native territories. Moreover,
Canada and the U.S. have also been experiencing a significant increase of
Indigenous persons living in urban spaces,*° which was part of the social
impetus for the creation of the paradigm in New Zealand. However, this is
where the similarities end.
32
Papps — Ramsden, Cultural Safety in Nursing, 491-497.
33 Gerlach, Critical Reflection, 151-158.
® Harding, Cultural Safety: Nursing Ethics, 4-11.
3 Snyder — Wilson, Urban Aboriginal Mobility, 2420.