Australia is a highly diverse society, but unfortunately, this doesn't always mean it's safe.
Creating an inclusive workplace is no longer a "nice to have" value; it's a fundamental requirement for delivering safe, ethical, and effective healthcare. Whether we are supporting colleagues or caring for patients, our actions and attitudes shape the culture of our workplaces and the quality of care we provide.
For those of us working in Australian healthcare settings, the responsibility to create inclusive environments extends across many dimensions, particularly for people with disability, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and the LGBTIQA+ community.
Inclusion in healthcare isn't just about equity; it's about ensuring everyday implementation into practice to ensure the best outcomes for everyone. Research consistently shows that inclusive environments are safer for patients, support better communication, and contribute to better health outcomes.
An Inclusive Workplace for Staff
For staff, inclusive workplaces are linked to greater job satisfaction, improved retention, and reduced burnout. When people feel safe to be themselves, they perform better, and as a direct result, patients benefit. With any marginalised group, the important factor is not that the workplace is holding the training but that it is upholding it in every decision.
Healthcare workplaces often include a diverse cohort of nurses, allied health professionals, doctors and support staff, all coming from a wide range of backgrounds. However, not all workers experience their workplaces in the same way.
Disability
People with disability continue to face systemic barriers in employment. Despite national disability inclusion policies, many healthcare workers with disability still report challenges accessing reasonable adjustments, stigma, or assumptions about their capabilities.
A truly inclusive workplace moves beyond compliance with the Disability Discrimination Act and actively encourages conversations about access needs. That might mean ensuring rostering software is screen-reader compatible, providing Auslan interpreters for training sessions, or designing emergency evacuation plans that include mobility-impaired staff.
Many disabilities are not visible. They may not always be apparent to colleagues or patients, but they can significantly impact how someone experiences a healthcare encounter or workplace.
Ways to support your staff:
- Provide flexible rostering, quiet spaces, and screen-reader-compatible systems
- Design emergency procedures that include people with mobility or sensory impairments
- Encourage a culture where access needs are welcomed, not questioned
Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islanders
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander staff, awareness and inclusion should be based on cultural safety.
Cultural safety is about more than acknowledging traditional owners during meetings; it's about creating environments where Indigenous staff feel respected, heard, and free from discrimination.
This includes incorporating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices into decision-making processes, offering mentoring opportunities, and acknowledging the historical and ongoing impact of colonisation in healthcare settings.
The "Racism. It Stops With Me" campaign and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Health Curriculum Framework provide useful tools for reflection and action.
Ways to support your staff:
- Embed Indigenous voices in leadership and decision-making
- Offer cultural mentorship and encourage participation in professional networks like the Congress of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Nurses and Midwives (CATSINaM)
- Understand that community obligations may impact leave, schedules, and care responsibilities
LGBTIQA+
For queer and gender-diverse staff, visibility and policy matter.
Staff need to feel confident that their identity will not be a source of risk or marginalisation in the workplace. This includes ensuring inclusive language is embedded in documentation and signage, that dress codes are not gendered and that HR systems allow for correct names and pronouns.
Organisations can demonstrate allyship through Pride networks, staff training, and by celebrating days of significance like IDAHOBIT.
Ways to support your staff:
- Ensure staff systems (payroll, ID cards, email) reflect preferred names and pronouns
- Offer regular training on inclusive language and workplace conduct
- Back up policies with action. Don't tolerate "jokes" or casual discrimination
An Inclusive Workplace for Patients
For many people, walking into a healthcare setting can be daunting, especially if they've felt judged, misunderstood, or dismissed in the past. As healthcare professionals, we want every patient to feel safe and respected, but that doesn't happen automatically.
True equity in care means recognising that some patients face extra barriers. This may be due to disability, cultural background or gender identity. It is our job to identify them and actively work to remove them.
Disability
Patients with disability often encounter healthcare systems that are not designed for them, from inaccessible examination tables to rushed consultations that don't allow time for communication needs.
Inclusive practice means making space for these conversations: "Do you have any access needs today?" or "How can I best communicate with you?" It also means having physical environments and clinical procedures that accommodate all bodies and abilities, not just the able-bodied default.
How to support your patients:
- Allow extra time in appointments if needed
- Ensure physical access (ramp, signage, accessible toilets) is routinely checked
- Provide communication tools like Easy Read resources, interpreters, or visual aids
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients often experience racism (either intentional or unintentional) and poorer health outcomes. This is for a number of reasons, from access to care to not feeling heard.
Culturally safe care is essential. This includes ensuring the option of an Aboriginal Health Worker or Liaison Officer, offering a welcoming environment with visible Indigenous artwork or signage, and understanding that cultural obligations and community responsibilities may influence how and when someone seeks care.
Listening is key. Trust is built through consistency and respect, not assumptions.
How to support your patients:
- Offer the support of an Aboriginal Health Worker or Liaison Officer. These can be facilitated through your local Aboriginal Community Controlled Health Organisations (ACCHOs)
- Avoid making assumptions. Ensure you ask open-ended questions that are culturally appropriate.
- Display visual cues that the space is safe (artwork, flags, signage)
LGBTIQA+
LGBTIQA+ patients, especially trans and gender-diverse people, frequently report negative experiences in healthcare. This includes misgendering, invasive questioning, or refusal of care.
Inclusive care begins with getting the basics right. This includes asking what name and pronouns a patient uses, ensuring forms are inclusive, and refraining from making assumptions about a person's body, relationships, or sexuality.
This can be tricky at times, as the patient may not have legally changed their name. This may result in their scripts being written using their dead name. However, having a conversation with the patient about why, legally, this has to happen and addressing them by their preferred names at other times can lessen the burden on the patient.
Training in inclusive language and gender-affirming care should be core content for all staff, not just optional extras for those with a special interest.
How to support your patients:
- Use inclusive language and never assume gender or roles
- Don't ask about someone's body unless clinically relevant
- Ensure forms, bathrooms, and signage are gender-inclusive
- Display visual cues that the space is safe (flags, signage)
Inclusivity in healthcare is not about political correctness; it's about justice, safety, and excellence in care. As healthcare professionals, we have the privilege and responsibility to shape the culture of our workplaces and the experiences of our patients.
Whether it's ensuring a trans staff member is addressed respectfully, creating space for an Aboriginal elder to share their story, or supporting a colleague with disability to thrive at work, our commitment to inclusion reflects our commitment to care.
Inclusion isn't a destination; it's a practice. One that requires curiosity, courage, and compassion. And the time to begin (or continue) is now.
