Pilot Testing an Intervention on Cultural Safety and Indigenous Health in a Canadian Occupational Therapy Curriculum

First-year Canadian occupational therapy students (n=27) rated their knowledge of and cultural/emotional responses to cultural safety and Indigenous health prior to and following an educational intervention led by a trained Indigenous educator. At post-intervention, students were also asked to comment on their learning experience. Pilot data of 40% of the class were analyzed using nonparametric approaches proposed by Koller and colleagues; qualitative data were explored using conventional methods. The majority of participant ratings reflected a perceived increase in knowledge and cultural/emotional responses, indicative of positive change following intervention. Student comments about their learning were in keeping with the positive findings. Although our sample size was small and our study examined perceived knowledge acquisition, preliminary results were consistent with related literature.