The Nursing Council of New Zealand introduced cultural safety into the nursing education curriculum in 1990. Since that time it has impacted on nursing education and the delivery of nursing and health care in a profound way. There is very little research exploring application of the concept in nursing practice and that is what this thesis explores.
Cultural safety has as its central focus, the nurse and the person for whom she or he cares within complex fields of health care relationships. This thesis argues that culturally safe care is open to multiple interpretations depending on the lens through which safety is perceived and care is interpreted, and applied in everyday practice. The narratives of 16
registered nurses suggest that both safety and care relate to an idea of protection carried out in everyday care. During times of illness or threatened change in health, a person’s sense
of self and safety, can be vulnerable to professional and institutional practices which may
put their sense of identity and well being at risk. The self-conscious provision of culturally
safe nursing takes account of the need to protect identity and requires that the nurse have a
practical understanding of professional and structural factors influencing health care.