Translating cultural safety principles into clinical practice: a qualitative study of nursing and midwifery student experiences.

BACKGROUND Cultural safety is a core value of nursing and midwifery practise however limited research has examined how students integrate and translate the principles of cultural safety into clinical practise. There is limited evidence exploring how curriculum content shapes students' attitudes and behaviours.

AIM This study aimed to explore nursing and midwifery students understanding of cultural safety and their perception of how that translated into their clinical practice.

DESIGN A two-phase qualitative exploratory design was employed comprising semi structured interviews followed by an online qualitative survey data were analysed deductively using the capability opportunity motivation (COM-B model). To our knowledge this is the first study to use this framework to explore the barriers and facilitators influencing students' translation of cultural safety into practice.

FINDINGS Seventeen nursing and midwifery students participated. Students' capacity to translate cultural safety principles were shaped by the interaction of capability opportunity and motivation capability was enhanced through understanding of cultural safety including historical an end to generational trauma and through critical self-reflection. Opportunity was strengthened by supportive educational and clinical environments including mentorship and role modelling. Motivation was influenced by increased awareness or colonisation a sense of humility and commitment to avoiding harmful practices with some students expressing willingness to question and challenge organisation systems. As participants with nonindigenous, the findings therefore reflect their perceptions and interpretations.

CONCLUSION Preparing students to meet professional expectations for culturally safe practice requires expanded culturally informed curricula an intentionally designed learning experiences across classroom and clinical context. When learning experiences support the application of cultural safety principles students have better position to translate theoretical knowledge into practise. Collectively these findings highlight the need for alignment between individual learning educational design and culturally safe clinical environments.