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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.
