Experiences of Indigenous and ethnic minority women with culturally safe healthcare in Europe: A scoping review

Abstract

Worldwide, Indigenous and ethnic minority women encounter discrimination in access to high quality healthcare and other advantageous social determinants of health. Cultural safety is the concept of proactively considering social, economic, and political situations, and power relationships in healthcare. By identifying ways in which culturally unsafe healthcare practices can intensify institutional discrimination and replicate traumatic experiences in historically oppressed populations, interventions may be crafted to improve patient experiences and outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to conduct a scoping review of research on experiences with culturally safe healthcare among adult Indigenous and ethnic minority women in Europe. All research articles within Europe, without set date parameters, addressing the experiences of individuals who self-identify as adult women or gender non-normative individuals who are members of Indigenous or ethnic minority communities were included. A total of four peer reviewed articles were identified for this scoping review. Participants in four studies described healthcare providers’ lack of knowledge of their culture and healthcare needs. The studies suggest that this lack of knowledge may lead to patient sentiments of inferiority, prejudice, increased barriers to access care, inadequate healthcare intervention and ineffective healthcare service. The articles propose the implementation of cultural safety to close the gap of health disparities in Indigenous and ethnic minority populations. There are limited data on the implementation of cultural safety in Europe, potentially indicating a lack of awareness regarding the concept of cultural safety or its core tenets, as well as regarding the importance of culture, racism and biases in healthcare related to ethnic minority populations. Overall, this scoping review reiterates the gap in research and knowledge in the implementation of culturally safe healthcare in Europe.