Abstract
Based on former refugees' experiences, the lack of cultural safety in healthcare provision is a major barrier to accessing oral health care services. This adds an extra burden to their already high oral health needs; accordingly, this research first investigated dental students' cultural safety knowledge, then developed and applied a new cultural safety module in dental practice with an emphasis on former refugee patients.
All 4th and 5th year Bachelor of Dental Surgery students were invited to participate in an electronic survey including a validated "cultural competency scale" and open-ended questions about former refugee oral health related issues. Syrian former refugees who had resettled in Dunedin participated in focus group meetings seeking their input on a draft cultural safety module regarding former refugee patients. The module was created based on student and former refugees' feedback and was delivered to 4th or 5th year dental students.
A total of 85 students and 14 former refugees participated. Student participants "somewhat agreed" that they were able to describe Māori (60%), Pākehā (37%) and Pasifika culture (35%). Student participants were able to identify the main barriers to meeting the oral health needs of former refugees; however, many failed to identify their own lack of cultural safety as a barrier. The thematic analysis of the former refugee focus groups identified both good and bad experiences depending on the cultural safety of providers. Based on these analyses, we developed teaching module with former refugees. After delivery of this module, follow-up questionnaires showed students had better understanding of culturally safe practice. Dental students expressed how this module helped them better understand barriers former refugees face.
Dental students described that the delivered module helped them better understand former refugee patients and expressed being inspired to safely treating former refugee patients in dental practice.