1st Edition

Cultural Safety,Healthcare and Vulnerable Populations A Critical Theoretical Perspective

By Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu Copyright 2018
    132 Pages
    by Routledge

    132 Pages
    by Routledge

    Culturally safe healthcare is rapidly challenging previous notions of cultural competency or cultural sensitivity in healthcare provision. The increasing number of vulnerable populations means healthcare must be given by a healthcare provider who has developed a social consciousness in relation to his or her own socio-cultural positioning versus that of the patient. A culturally safe practitioner has engaged in an active examination of the power differences existing in this patient-provider relationship.

    In this book, Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu critically analyzes the complex issues affecting the health of vulnerable populations. Written from a critical theoretical perspective she seeks to enhance the ability of the healthcare student to develop a social consciousness about the realities faced by many populations living on the margins of society, and thereafter make an active and conscious decision to engage in culturally safe healthcare and contribute to the elimination of health disparities. Through the application of postcolonial feminist theory this book conceptualizes health as being historically situated in social relations of power and emphasizes health interventions that are potentially empowering, and enhance emancipatory change.

    Through discussions of health provision for ethnic minorities, immigrant populations, and refugees, the book seeks to provide pragmatic guidance for culturally safe care for a variety of marginalized populations and invites students and professionals to think deeply about the implications of power, culture and health.

    Introduction   Chapter 1 Developing a social consciousness   Chapter 2 Contesting the notion of culture   Chapter 3 Cultural safety   Chapter 4 Situating health problems within a given historical and socio-political context   Chapter 5 Trauma-informed care   Chapter 6 Providing culturally safe healthcare to immigrants and refugees   Chapter 7 Building on community capacities to address health problems   Chapter 8 Interdisciplinary collaboration

    Biography

    Lucy Mkandawire-Valhmu is Associate Professor in the College of Nursing at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, USA.