NUR3006 - Diversity in healthcare practice

This unit provides students with resources to understand their own culture, the culture of healthcare and the historical and social issues that contribute to differential health outcomes for particular groups in order to discern how to contribute to providing culturally safe care for all Australians. Australian society has an indigenous foundation and is becoming increasingly multicultural. In Victoria 26.2 percent of Victorians and 24.6 per cent of Australians were born overseas, compared with New Zealand (22.4 per cent), Canada (21.3 per cent), United States (13.5 per cent) and The United Kingdom (10.4 per cent). An important aspect of cultural safety is the recognition that the health care system has its own culture. In Australia, this culture is premised on a western scientific worldview. The unit will examine how social determinants of health such as class, gender, race, sexual orientation, gender identity; education, economic status and culture affect health and illness. The influence of politics, economics, social-cultural environment and other contextual factors will be discussed, with an emphasis on how policy, planning, organisation and delivery of health and healthcare have an impact on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander (ATSI) and culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) communities.