The Nursing Council of New Zealand made cultural safety mandatory for nursing education programs that prepare individuals for registration as nurses in 1992. At the time, cultural safety was described as "effective nursing of a person or family from another culture by a nurse who has undertaken and recognizes the consequences of the nurses' culture on their own nursing practice."  learning about cultural safety is a concept peculiar to New Zealand nursing. It entails training nursing students to recognize and comprehend cultural, personal, and professional power dynamics and how they influence nursing and healthcare interactions. The conclusions of a research study on leading the way in cultural safety are described in this article.

In the 1980s, nurses in New Zealand recognized the need to address Maori health issues via nursing education and a dedication to biculturalism. A workshop in 1986 that assessed nurse preparation and first employment recommended that more Maori nurses be included in the nursing field. A Maori nurse adviser and educationalist were seconded to the Department of Education in 1987 to help in the formulation of curriculum standards for nursing education. 

After completing a nursing education program, generations of New Zealanders took the now-outdated Florence Nightingale oath, which stated that patients should be cared for "regardless" of their race or religious beliefs. In the past, nurses were taught that when providing nursing care, they should not take into account the differences between individuals. However, it is now thought that health professionals who act on presumptions and stereotypes seriously harm service delivery and threaten the health of the patients they care for. Nursing care for patients "regardfully" of their unique characteristics is necessary for cultural safety. Students are challenged to recognize that there are other ways in which people experience life and view the world through the teaching of cultural safety. The goal of cultural safety education is to inform aspiring nurses and midwives:

- to reflect on their own realities and the attitudes they bring to every new patient they treat

 -to have tolerant and adaptable attitudes toward those who are different from themselves and to whom they provide services.

 -to develop a workforce of knowledgeable, self-aware registered nurses and midwives who are comfortable practising in their respective cultures.

Through shifts in how people view power dynamics and patient rights, cultural safety in nursing and midwifery education and practice gives the delivery of high-quality care a focus. The ability of nurses does not lie in their knowledge of specific ethnospecific customs. Instead, cultural safety imposes a duty on the nurse to provide care while acknowledging and respecting the individual differences of every patient. However, the nurse or midwife does not make the decision regarding safety. Consumers or patients make the decision as to whether they feel secure in the care received. In nursing and midwifery, power dynamics between service relationships and providers are addressed through cultural safety. It gives users of the service the ability to express how much risk or safety they perceive. When someone feels unsafe, they may not be able to fully benefit from the primary healthcare services provided and may refuse to use them until a drastic and costly secondary or tertiary intervention is needed.

Cultural safety does not prioritize awareness or sensitivity. Both cultural sensitivity and awareness focus on understanding diversity in both cultures, especially ethnicity. This seems to be the fundamental misunderstanding of the idea of cultural safety. In New Zealand, "culture" is understood to mean "ethnicity," with Maori being the dominant ethnic group. The subject of racism is brought up by cultural safety. It doesn't address racial issues, which hurts both those who acknowledge racism and those who decline it. The confusion over what cultural safety actually includes, the fact that it is concerned with students learning Maori customs and language, and the idea of "transcultural nursing" have all been incorporated into the discussion. A nurse from the United States named Madeleine Leininger pioneered the "transcultural" approach to nursing and ethnicity. But this is not the same thing as cultural safety. According to transcultural nursing, it is necessary to have specific knowledge in order to work effectively with clients from other cultures. Transcultural nursing would be an example of continuing colonial behaviour that acceptance of the Treaty of Waitangi attempts to address in the context of New Zealand and given the Treaty of Waitangi.

The idea of cultural safety has witnessed constant improvement since its introduction in 1992. The relationship between the Maori and the Crown, which is based on the Treaty of Waitangi, continues to be its main focus in order to improve the health status of all New Zealanders. But it has since been expanded to include a focus on the relationship between nurses and patients who use various kinds of health services.

Age or generation

Gender 

Sexual preference

Socioeconomic standing;

Spiritual or religious conviction

Disability

The inclusion of these categories emphasizes how broadly the term "culture" is used. If nurses have unconscious biases against patients who differ from them in any of these categories, they will not be able to provide high-quality, patient-focused care.

The Treaty of Waitangi's legal recognition and the public's response to the inclusion of cultural safety in nursing education presents a stark paradox. Hon. Jenny Shipley, New Zealand's Minister of Health, stated that the nursing professions in New Zealand are leading the world in addressing issues of the transfer of power from providers to consumers in her endorsement of the draft guidelines for cultural safety in nursing education. However, it is a novel idea that hasn't been thoroughly examined. The Nursing Council of New Zealand intends to keep an eye on the application of new rules pertaining to the instruction of cultural safety. Consumer judgment will be the true test of its effectiveness in nursing and midwifery in the real world. That hasn't happened yet.

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