To celebrate the 25th anniversary year of Cultural Safety in NZ
we are collecting Cultural Safety experiences & stories from Nurses throughout NZ.
We will publish a special Cultural Safety monograph edition of Te Puawai in July 2012 with a selection of these stories. (Te Puawai will be available to read free online as an e-journal or .pdf)
Please feel free to share your own experiences with us.

Please submit your own Cultural Safety Stories to be shared by clicking here.

1. Exemplar of cultural safety in the ED  Submitted by Karen Blair
   
   Excerpt - 'On arrival in the ED he was wheeled into the department on a wheelchair slumped forward with blood all over his face and back and was only responding to voices. We quickly realised that he that he was haemodynamically compromised and needed urgent intervention. We managed to get him from the wheelchair on to a bed and quickly begin oxygen. At this stage he was combative and his friends were very sketchy on what had happened. Blood was coming through the many layers of clothing on his back and it was clear to me that we needed to get his clothing off to assess where the blood was coming from. This proved difficult because his friends were insistent that we didn't remove his clothing.'
   Click here to read more
   
   
   

2. Cultural and Linguistic Diverse (CALD) group cultural competencies   Submitted by Annette Mortensen

   Excerpt - Since April 2010 nurses in the Auckland region have been trained in Cultural and Linguistic Diverse (CALD) group cultural competencies. The overall goal of the CALD training programme is to improve the cultural awareness, sensitivity, knowledge and skills of nurses and other health practitioners working with CALD patients and their families.
   

   Excerpt - "Probably the best one I can think of is that we have quite a few people from the Middle East and the example of the lady that they gave in one of the interviews was her religious beliefs were more important than her health beliefs. I always assumed that the health would take preference but obviously religion in some cultures is extremely more important than health."
   Click here to read more
   

3. An American Nurses Experience of Cultural Safety in NZ.
   Submitted by Joyce Jones RN
   
   Excerpt - As I sit way up in the far north around the lunch table hearing from one of our 83 year old Kui about the old days, I sit very quietly hardly breathing so I do not break the atmosphere of her sharing. She surprises me by starting to talk about sex and through her giggles I hear her tell about how there was lore in her days before the laws came. There were times for mating and certain traditions that kept the men away from the women after they had given birth.  Click here to read more
   
   
4. Please submit your own Cultural Safety Stories to be shared by clicking here.