title: Indigenous cultural training for health workers in Australia.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Culturally inappropriate health services contribute to persistent health inequalities. This article reviews approaches to indigenous cultural training for health workers and assesses how effectively they have been translated into training programmes within Australia.
  
  
  METHODS
  CINAHL PLUS, MEDLINE, Wiley InterScience, ATSIHealth and ProQuest.
  
  
  METHODS
  The review focuses on the conceptual and empirical literature on indigenous cultural training for health workers within selected settler-colonial countries, together with published evaluations of such training programmes in Australia. Data extraction Information on conceptual models underpinning training was extracted descriptively. Details of authors, year, area of investigation, participant group, evaluation method and relevant findings were extracted from published evaluations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Six models relevant to cultural training were located and organized into a conceptual schema ('cultural competence, transcultural care, cultural safety, cultural awareness, cultural security and cultural respect'). Indigenous cultural training in Australia is most commonly based on a 'cultural awareness' model. Nine published evaluations of Australian indigenous cultural training programmes for health workers were located. Of the three studies that assessed change at multiple points in time, two found positive changes. However, the only study to include a control group found no effect.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This review shows that the evidence for the effectiveness of indigenous cultural training programmes in Australia is poor. Critiques of cultural training from indigenous and non-indigenous scholars suggest that a 'cultural safety' model may offer the most potential to improve the effectiveness of health services for indigenous Australians.
authors.affiliation: School of Philosophy, Anthropology and Social Inquiry, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Australia.
authors.forename: Rosie
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Downing
authors.forename: Emma
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Kowal
authors.forename: Yin
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Paradies
mesh_terms: D001315:Australia; D003431:Cross-Cultural Comparison; D054521:Cultural Competency / Q000193:education*; D004493:Education; D054625:Healthcare Disparities / Q000208:ethnology*; D006801:Humans; D044382:Population Groups; D011287:Prejudice; D000095283:Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples