Challenges on the path to cultural safety in nursing education

The purpose of this study is to identify central challenges to be addressed in cultural safety education.

In recent years, the idea of cultural safety has received increased attention as a way of dealing with diversity in the nursing profession, especially in divided societies. The idea of cultural safety goes beyond recognizing and appreciating difference, to an attempt to grappling with deeper issues like inequality, conflict and histories of oppression.

The paper is based on formative evaluation, using action research, of an academic nursing programme in Israel, involving Jewish and Arab students. Part of this research dealt with the integration of cultural safety education into the curriculum.

The study revealed four challenges in cultural safety education: making it safe for minorities to present their culture to the majority group ('the ambassador's dilemma'), dealing with tendency of groups to deny the existence of conflict ('the one big happy family fantasy'), making dynamics of oppression discussable ('the oppressed and the oppressor') and creating conditions in which people can freely choose their individual and group identities ('the threat of identity').

Cultural safety education may be experienced as unsafe for many participants. Better understanding of the challenges of cultural safety education is necessary for making it more effective.