Examples Of Cultural Safety And The Family Systems Model

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Cultural Safety and the Family Systems Model applied in Nursing
Cultural Safety and the Family Systems Model are concepts that have been incorporated into today’s nursing practice. This paper supports the view that all nursing care goes beyond the individual patient (client). Nursing Care must ensure equality in all groups of people and must include the family unit when caring for a client.
Andrew is a 1 year 10 month old boy. He was born premature and was hospitalized after birth with RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus). Recently, he has been brought back to the hospital by his mother Rachel. She is a post-partum doula and has a strong belief system which includes; not immunizing children, and adhering to natural and herbal remedies only. In …show more content…

The first concept, Cultural Safety, is relatively new. It emerged in New Zealand and has been incorporated into the Canadian Health Care Systems. Dr. Irihapeti Ramsden developed the concept to promote awareness of cultural differences and to recognize the inequities present in health care. (Ramsden, 2002).
“Cultural Safety is a term used to describe a way of working with people of different cultural backgrounds that does not diminish, demean or disempower someone” (Nursing Council of New Zealand, 2009). Cultural Safety allows a nurse to examine their beliefs, values and culture, and to understand how these might affect the client with their different cultural understandings. Cultural Safety supports partnership relationships and helps to diminish power struggles that can occur within healthcare service institutions. The goal is to make these power struggles evident so that both parties can negotiate how they can work together and ensure that the client receives the appropriate respectful care (Nursing Council of New Zealand, …show more content…

“The Family Systems Model is a theory introduced by Dr. Murray Bowen that suggests that individuals cannot be understood in isolation from one another, but rather as a part of their family, as the family is an emotional unit” (Family Systems Theory, 2018). What happens to the family as a whole affects each individual family member, and what happens to individuals affects the entire family unit. Focus is on the circular interactions among members of the family system, resulting in functional or dysfunctional outcomes. Family members affect each other's thoughts, emotions, words, and actions. Even when we try not to be affected by our families, we often are still influenced by them. When family members get tense, the anxiety becomes contagious. This can lead to family members becoming overwhelmed, isolated, or feeling out of control. That anxiety can lead to other problems such as alcoholism, and physical illness (Family systems theory,

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