Vasiliki Douglas
College of New Caledonia, Canada
Title: Building Cultural Safety through mutual respect: Examples from Indigenous populations and Institutions in Canada
Biography
Biography: Vasiliki Douglas
Abstract
Cultural Safety famously emerged from a cultural template informed by the physical example of Sharps Safety. Practitioners who practice Cultural Safety expect to constantly self-monitor their behaviour and attitudes to avoid creating a cultural unsafe space for patients.
However, health care practitioners must also remain cognizant of their own professional cultural space – one that is bounded by legal and professional standards. In other words, Cultural Safety cuts both ways. Some patient’s demands and requirements may be culturally mediated, but mutual cultural safety requires practitioners to create a space that both patients and practitioners can reside in without violating either cultural rules. Examples from culturally appropriate birthing centres in the Canadian Arctic can be used to construct a model in which we, as professionals can act as mediators between the health care system and patients' own cultural space – creating a common ground in which a culturally safety and professional integrity can both thrive.