This document discusses supporting clinical academics to develop cultural safety. It notes that clinical academics have a responsibility to improve Aboriginal health outcomes and need support to critically reflect on their leadership roles within medicine and their followership roles within Aboriginal communities. It suggests that using transformative learning theory, clinical academics require good company to develop the dual roles of being leaders in their field and followers in the communities they serve. Questions are posed about whether followership is a key skill for cultural competence and how followership can be learned through experiences and good company.

1. From leadership to
followership: supporting
clinical academics to become
culturally safe.
A Cawley , L Walters, C Reeves,
K Glover, J Gladman, D Fearon

2. Faculty/Presenter Disclosure
Slide 1
• Faculty: Presenter Anne Cawley
• Relationships with commercial interests:
– Grants/Research Support: the Rural
Clinical Training and Support program
is funded by the Commonwealth
Department of Health.
– Speakers Bureau/Honoraria: none
– Consulting Fees: none
– Other: Karen Glover is CEO of an
Aboriginal community-controlled
health service. Other authors are
employees of Flinders University.

3. Culturally safe clinical school
Cultural safety in SoM:
• Socially accountable
• Encourage Aboriginal and
Torres Strait islander
people to study medicine
• Encourage clinicians to
contribute to closing the
gap

4. Clinical academics
In Justin Gladman’s recent study of cultural climate in
FURCS
Academic clinicians:
• Responsibility to hold the profession to account for the health
outcomes of Aboriginal people
• Need to be supported to facilitate critical reflection in those they lead
Using Mezirow’s Transformative Learning theory
• academic clinicians require good company to develop dual roles of
leadership within the medical profession and followership within the
Aboriginal communities with which they work.

5. Followership
• The tango analogy
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cswrnc1dggg

6. Followership
Questions for discussion:
• Is followership a key skill in the development of
cultural competence in clinical settings?
• Have you seen followership in action in the
Aboriginal health context? How was it portrayed?
How was it learnt?
• Do you have experiences of good company
contributing to learning followership? Do you
have experiences of other ways of learning
followership?