PhD Candidate: Jennifer Tokomauri McGregor (Ngati Raukawa (Waikato))
Primary Supervisor(s): Dr. Alayne Mikahere-Hall
Background: Despite being a long-term government priority, the inequity of Māori nurses in the health workforce is long-standing, suggesting that that recruitment and retention of Māori into the nursing workforce is problematic. Māori nurses report various challenges in nursing education and the working environment, such as racism and feeling undervalued, lonely and isolated. Moreover, the dual competency, knowledge and praxis of mātauranga Māori and nursing, that Māori nurses come with is often marginalised and excluded from patient care. Understanding what can be done to create and promote culturally-safe spaces for Māori nurses in education and the workplace is fundamental to the recruitment and retention of Māori into nursing. Moreover, further research into how Māori nurses conceptualise culturally safe spaces for practice development is recommended, particularly given the Ministry of Health’s (2020) commitment to achieving health equity for Māori.
Research question/s:
1.How do Māori nurses conceptualise culturally-safe spaces for practice development?
2. What are the benefits and outcomes for Māori nurses?
3. What are the key cultural elements that can be applied more broadly to nursing practice?
Aims: To understand what culturally-safe spaces for Māori nurses to develop their nursing practice looks and feels like.
Objective: To utilise Matauranga Māori to guide the development of culturally safe working environments for Māori nurses.
The significance of this research: Kawa Whakaruruhau (cultural safety in a Māori context) was developed by Māori nursing philosopher, Dr. Ihirapeti Ramsden, over 30 years ago in response to the negative health care environments for Māori, including Māori nurses. Cultural safety has since been embedded into the NZ (and international) nursing curriculum and competencies, However, there has been no formal evaluation of whether Māori (including Māori nurses) experience cultural safety in the health care setting. This research will make a unique contribution to the literature, specific to Māori nurses’ practice development and the evaluation of cultural safety for our Māori nurses.