Cultural Safety in Training Setting Accreditation in Australia

The Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM) | Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA)

Who funded the project

 

The Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists (ANZCA) is committed to improving health outcomes for Indigenous peoples across its trans-Tasman jurisdiction, both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Australia and Māori in Aotearoa New Zealand. This includes ensuring cultural safety in the training experience and in accreditation processes.

To that end, ANZCA’s Faculty of Pain Medicine (FPM)  engaged Karabena Consulting (Karabena) to develop a short, evidence-based video and supplementary explainer sheets that supports its accreditation team members to conduct culturally safe hospital accreditation visits. 

Accreditation teams are responsible for determining whether departments are suitable to train future anaesthetists and pain medicine doctors, and their conduct directly influences the safety and inclusiveness of these environments. Interactions with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, including doctors in training, can either strengthen trust and accountability or contribute to unsafety if not approached with care.

The aim of this resource is to support the accreditation team members to conduct culturally safe interviewing, probing, and conversations in their respective roles. Although accreditation teams have completed cultural safety training, the evaluative and high-stakes nature of accreditation visits requires additional preparation. The resource, therefore is designed to provide timely reminders on how to be good allies, ask constructive questions, and elicit honest feedback about cultural safety within departments.

To achieve this aim, Karabena:

  • Undertook a rapid review of relevant literature and policy.

  • Developed recommendations for the content and composition of the resource.

  • Drafted video script, slides, and supplementary explainer documents.

  • Tested the draft materials in a workshop with ANZCA board members and accreditation team members.

  • Revised and developed a final video and supplementary resources.

As a result of this process, Karabena developed a 15-minute video and six supplementary ‘explainer’ fact sheets which are now available to accreditation team members.

Summary

 

The primary aim of the project was to develop a short resource (video +/- guidance doc) that can be accessed by the reviewers as a reminder before they undertake a visit about:

  • How can a reviewer be a good ally in this situation?

  • Tips to ensure reviewers are not contributing to unsafety within that unit/department

  • How could reviewers ask questions that draw out feedback around how the hospital may be creating unsafety?

Project Aims

 

To achieve the project aims, Karabena:

  • Undertook a rapid review of relevant literature, frameworks, and policies to identify key themes for inclusion in the resource. This included a review of resources with relevance to: 

    • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural safety in healthcare settings

    • Effective communication with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare staff, including doctors in training.

    • Experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working in healthcare.

    • Internal and external policies and frameworks.

The review culminated in a series of recommendations for content and composition of the resource. 

  • Drafted resource materials, drawing on the findings and recommendations from the rapid review. This included:

    • A video script

    • Slides

    • Six supplementary ‘Explainer’ fact sheets.

  • Facilitated a workshop with ANZCA board members and accreditation team members to review the draft resource’s utility and clarity. 

  • Revised the resource materials, addressing feedback from both the workshop and feedback from ANZCA FPM’s project team.

Filmed and edited the final resource, and delivered all final products to ANZCA FPM.

Methodologies

 

Outputs

The core outputs of this project were:

  1. A ~15-minute video (“Cultural Safety in Training Setting Accreditation in Australia”) addressing the project aims.

  2. Six supplementary ‘Explainer’ fact sheets covering:

    1. What is cultural safety in this context

    2. Why cultural safety matters in this context

    3. How to embed cultural safety in this context:

      1. The basics

      2. Being a good ally

      3. Respectful and effective engagement

      4. Communication and asking questions

 

The video and supplementary fact sheets are now available to ANZCA FPM accreditation team members to review before they undertake accreditation visits. It is anticipated that this will have a direct impact on the cultural safety of the accreditation process, and the cultural safety of departments that are subject to accreditation.

By ensuring training settings are culturally safe for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander doctors and doctors in training, it is hoped that there is an increase in the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander pain management specialists and anaesthetists.

Project Outcomes

 

Cultural safety
Accreditation
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health
Indigenous medical training
ANZCA Faculty of Pain Medicine
Culturally safe communication
Health workforce development
Hospital training settings
Allyship in healthcare
Accreditation resources

Key words

Peter Imboy