Rationale:
Cultural Safety is a result of education and a process of ongoing learning and reflection. As future professionals in the healthcare system, occupational therapy graduates will play a crucial role in providing Cultural Safety practice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Objectives:
To explore occupational therapy students’ perceptions about their capabilities for Culturally Safe Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander healthcare.
To explore the impact of an ‘Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples’ Wellbeing Practice’ course on occupational therapy students’ perceptions of their capabilities for practicing Cultural Safety in the healthcare setting.
Methods:
Concurrent, mixed methods research design has been used to answer the research questions. Data has been collected by online survey, using the Cultural Capability Measurement Tool (West et al., 2021) pre-post intervention (participation in the course HLT242 – Indigenous Wellbeing Practice). Additionally, semi-structured interview post intervention provides data that will assist to extrapolate findings from the quantitative data, and to triangulate findings. Data collection has commenced and will be completed and analysed prior to Conference Presentation.
Practice implications:
It is anticipated that outcomes from this research project will support the ongoing development and review of the embedding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, perspectives and experiences and Cultural Safety in tertiary education.
Conclusion:
The requirement to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges, perspectives and experiences into the Australian tertiary education health curriculum and ensure health profession graduates are prepared to practice Cultural Safety is evident at national and university levels.