RESUMEN

BACKGROUND: The Royal Australasian College of Surgeons (RACS) recently instituted cultural safety and cultural competency as its 10th competency with formalized cultural safety training yet to be instituted. Wananga are Indigenous Maori teaching institutions that can be used contemporarily for cultural safety training. METHODS: In 2022, surgical registrars based at Taranaki Base Hospital (TBH) held in-hospital wananga ranging from 1 to 3 h focussed on cultural safety, professionalism and wellbeing. This study explores the perspectives of these registrars who attended wananga using a Kaupapa Maori aligned methodological stance and interpretive phenomenological analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-six wananga were held from March 22nd 2022 to January 30th 2023. Six registrars provided their perspectives with four major themes emerging from their stories including: cultural safety; unity; time, place and person; and a new era. Registrars valued the wananga which was scheduled for Friday afternoons after daily clinical duties. Wananga facilitated unity and understanding with registrars being able to reflect on the context within which they are practicing - describing it as a new era of surgical training. 'Time' was the biggest barrier to attend wananga however, the number of wananga held was testament to the commitment of the registrars. CONCLUSIONS: Regular wananga set up by, and for, surgical registrars cultural safety development is feasible and well subscribed in a rural or provincial NZ setting. We present one coalface method of regular cultural safety training and development for surgical registrars and trainees in NZ.