In remote and rural allied health practice you are likely to see clients from various cultural backgrounds. In particular, depending where you are practicing, it is like you will be providing services to Indigenous clients. It is important that you develop skills in cultural safety and awareness to ensure your practice is appropriate.
Many workplaces will have cultural safety / awareness / competence or cross-cultural communication training. If you are working with clients from different cultural backgrounds, particularly Indigenous clients, seek this training out. If your workplace does not provide this training, speak to your manager about other training options.
To further develop your cultural safety and provide you with the opportunity to reflect on your practice we have created a learning module. The module will take about 20 minutes to complete. Click on the below tab to access the module, which will open in a new window.
Cultural Safety Learning Package
Cultural Safety & You
Complete the learning module and refer to the useful resources below to develop your cultural safety. Consider:
- How culturally safe is your practice?
- How can you develop your cultural safety?
- How will practicing in a culturally safey way influence your service delivery?
Useful Resources
- Share Our Pride
- Indigenous Health Infonet
- Sharing True Stories
- Eckermann AK, Dows T, Chong E, Nixon L, Gray R, Johnson SM. Binang Goonj: Bridging Cultures in Aboriginal Health. Council of Remote Area Nurses, Australia. Churchill Livingstone; 2006.
- ABC Online Indigenous
- Centre for Culture, Ethnicity and Health
- Indigenous Allied Health Australia
- National Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisation
- Edwards T, Smith JD, Smith RJ, Elston J. Chapter 3 Cultural Perspectives, in Australia’s Rural and Remote Health: A social justice perspective. Smith JD (ed) 2nd edition, Tertiary Press, Melbourne.
- Aboriginal Cultural Orientation - online e-Learning developed by WA Country Health Service, Disability Services Commission and Combined University Centre for Rural Health: http://lms.cucrh.uwa.edu.au/login/index.php (you will need to create a log in on the CUCRH website).
