Foreword
We thank the seminal and contemporary scholars in this space as well as the dedicated health practitioners and community members whose insights continue to build our understanding of Cultural Safety. Our experiences working across diverse fields as educators, scholars, health practitioners and learners has led to our collective appreciation of Cultural Safety as a necessary practice in health care.
This book was inspired by the need to equip educators to train health professionals in culturally safe practice at the Queensland University of Technology. We were fortunate to be able to partner with authors from the University of Canterbury Aotearoa (New Zealand) to write this book. Cultural Safety is understood and practised in various ways depending on an individual’s cultural lens. Some see it as a necessity to access health care safely, others consider it part of person-centred care. Some people see it as empowering their health care journey, others consider it more theoretical than practical. Knowing that everyone comes with their own lens, this book aims to equip students, educators and health professionals with the knowledge and skills required for respectful and culturally safe interactions with others in their professional and personal contexts. This book can be used to support Cultural Safety education in undergraduate and postgraduate courses.
We all have a different perspective on Cultural Safety. This book is an invitation to:
- Engage with another perspective of Cultural Safety and further shape your understanding;
- Equip educators, students and health professionals with the knowledge and skills, to provide respectful and culturally safe teaching, learning experiences and health care provision.
