Читать книгу Becoming a Reflective Practitioner - Группа авторов - Страница 85

Many writers have written about the nature of care and the demand that puts on carers to act for what is espoused as the ‘good’. Consider Logstrup’s (1997, p. 18) ethical demand:

By our very attitude to one another we help to shape one another’s world. By our attitude to the other person we help to determine the scope and the hue of his or her world; we make it large and small, bright or drab, rich or dull, threatening or secure. We help to shape his or her world, not by theories and views but by our very attitude to him or her. Herein lies the unarticulated and one might say anonymous demand that we take care of the life which trust has placed into our hands.

Clearly attitude, as noted previously, is a significant aspect being person‐centred. Negative attitudes lead to such phenomena as the ‘difficult patient’, the ‘interfering relative’ and racism. For example, issues surrounding racism continue to surface (Blackford 2003; Puzan 2003), perhaps more so at this time of writing in light of the ‘Black lives matter’ movement² and the global response to George Floyd’s death by a policeman in the USA on 25 May 2020 demanding justice and equality. As Puzan (2003, p. 194) writes:

There is so much familiarity in talking about the alleged racial differences of non‐white people in public discourse and so little familiarity in talking about those racial properties attached to being white, that the concept of whiteness (or a recognition of racial formation) has little resonance within nursing (citing Jacobson 1998). While issues related to cultural difference are not ignored, they rarely include the difference specifically engendered by ‘whiteness’, which is structured to avoid and deflect interrogation or critical reflection.

Puzan’s words challenge all healthcare practitioners, health organisations, and health systems about the right attitude to hold towards all people irrespective of race to ensure cultural safety and health equity. A commonly used definition of cultural safety is that of Williams (1999, p. 213), who defines cultural safety as: an environment that is spiritually, socially, and emotionally safe, as well as physically safe for people; where there is no assault challenge or denial of their identity, of who they are and what they need.³ From a healthcare perspective, Cultural safety is the effective nursing practice of a person or family from another culture that is determined by that person or family. Unsafe cultural practise is defined as an action that demeans the cultural identity of a particular person or family (Nursing Council of New Zealand 2002, p. 9).⁴