ABSTRACT
In order for the nursing profession to lead change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health education, cultural safety and anti-racism training need to become an integral aspect of nursing education, extending nursing’s already comprehensive repertoire of skills. The Graduate Cultural Capability Model from the Framework identifies the capabilities that new graduate nurses should have developed after undertaking studies in a tertiary setting where the Framework has been implemented: respect, communication, safety and quality, reflection and advocacy. The Framework uses the notion of ‘cultural capability’ as its foundation. Australia has been inhabited continually for between 50,000 and 60,000 years by the country’s first nations peoples, known as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander population experiences significantly poorer health compared with the rest of the Australian community. The health of the country’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples prior to 1788 was generally better than that of most people in Europe at the time.
