“Workplace and patient cultural safety for all Aboriginal and /or Torres Strait Islander people in the university and health sectors should be the norm,” said Professor Jane Dahlstrom, Chair of the AMC Medical School Accreditation Committee. “The AMC, as part of its strategic plan, is committed to achieving this by delivering quality cultural safely training for its staff, committee members and contributors.”
Accreditation authorities play a critical role in ensuring that health practitioners have the necessary skills and behaviours to practise competently and safely in Australian health care settings. The Health Professions Accreditation Collaborative (HPAC) Forum has partnered with ABSTARR to develop a cultural safety training course specifically designed for contributors to the accreditation of health profession programs.
The forum is a coalition of the 15 accreditation authorities – of which the AMC is one. Collectively, the 15 accreditation authorities accredit and monitor more than 800 programs of study and 130 providers who prepare health practitioners for practice in the 16 regulated professions.
“Cultural safety is a foundational requirement, not a nice-to-have,” said Professor Shaun Ewen, Chair of the AMC Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander and Māori Committee. This understanding is reflected in the accreditation standards recently revised by the AMC.
The cultural safety course will provide accreditation contributors with the skills and knowledge to understand what cultural safety means, how it is incorporated into accreditation standards and practices and to assess how it’s applied in health profession education programs.
The AMC is contacting all of its accreditation contributors to provide them with details of the course, and to offer support for them to undertake the course.
