Cultural Safety Training: Survey of Canadian Pharmacy Residency and Degree Programs

Culturally safe health system interventions can support practitioners in providing culturally safe experiences for patients. Pharmacy regulatory bodies have set out standards for providing culturally safe care, but there is a lack of guidance on how to implement training within educational programs.

To characterize cultural safety education and/or training in Canadian pharmacy educational programs.

Bilingual surveys were created and validated for pharmacy residency and degree programs and were administered through Qualtrics survey software. Each program was limited to one response. Closed-ended responses were analyzed with sample frequencies based on counts and percentages. Free-text responses were reviewed and coded to generate thematic categories.

The completed survey response rates were 51% (22 of 43) and 50% (5 of 10) for the residency and degree programs, respectively, with additional respondents providing answers for some but not all sections of the survey (included in the analysis). Cultural safety education and/or training was reported to have been implemented in 21 of 32 residency programs and 4 of 6 degree programs. Of the respondent programs that reported implementation of training and continued the survey, 11 of 15 residency programs and all 4 degree programs reported program-specific training. A common perceived barrier in residency programs was lack of familiarity with resources (13 of 21), whereas a common barrier in degree programs was lack of trained educators (4 of 6).

Cultural safety differs from conventional academic content because it is a complex topic that requires an understanding of cultural differences, which takes time to develop. To achieve the goal of cultural competence, it may be beneficial to integrate pharmacy-specific training alongside self-reflections and opportunities to engage in cultural safety experiences.