Developing Equity in Our Team

Policy

We recognise the need for our practice team to understand the concept of health equity and how their role contributes to equitable outcomes.

We ensure our team:

• are knowledgeable and informed about Te Tiriti o Waitangi and understand how to apply the principles to their work
• have appropriate skills and competencies for the community we serve, e.g. language skills and cultural competency
• understand the key concepts around equity in health care.

See also Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

Analysing gaps in your team

Where possible, the diversity of our team should reflect the community we serve. We use gap analysis to identify missing skills or competencies.

We look for ways to address any gaps, e.g. by supporting team members to build skills, or recruiting someone with particular competencies.

To conduct a gap analysis:

1. Identify your goal.

   For example: We need more competency with te reo Māori in our team.

2. Analyse the current situation.

   For example:

   • What is the percentage of Māori in our patient population?
   • What is the current level of te reo Māori and tikanga competency in our team?
   • Are there other significant groups in our population we should consider?

3. For each area identified, compare the current state with the ideal state.

   For example:

   Your current state might be:

   • One doctor and two nurses have a basic understanding of tikanga and are confident greeting people and pronouncing Māori words.
   • No-one feels confident doing a mihi.
   • None of the receptionists feel confident using basic greetings or pronouncing Māori names.

   You might identify your ideal state as:

   • All team members will be able to pronounce Māori names correctly and be confident using greetings. As a minimum, every team member will be able to do a basic mihi and understand basic tikanga Māori.

4. Describe the gap and quantify the differences.

   This will be subjective and you might use terminology like "Good", "Fair", and "Poor".

5. Summarise recommendations and create a plan to bridge the gaps.

   Ask:

   • What do we need to change? You could address the biggest discrepancy first.
   • What steps do we need to take?
   • Who else could we work with to achieve our goal?

   For example:

   • We will bring in a te reo Māori teacher to work with our team.
   • We will encourage our team to use te reo Māori greetings and encourage those with confident language skills to lead by example.
   • We will check our receptionists are confident pronouncing the names of patients coming in each day at our morning hui.

The solution isn't necessarily to recruit a new person with the missing capability, especially if the capability you need is under-represented in the health sector. Consider whether your current team can be supported to grow their skills.