College Connection | Spring 2025
Veterinarians share insight on how they have developed their understanding of cultural humility in their careers
College Connection | Spring 2025
CULTURAL HUMILITY
Veterinarians share insight on how they have developed their understanding of cultural humility in their careers
Cultural humility invites individuals to adopt a mindset of continuous learning and self-reflection in their interactions with diverse cultures, which helps to foster meaningful cross-cultural interactions. For veterinarians, the ability to provide effective care relies on medical expertise, and on understanding the cultural backgrounds of those they serve. Veterinarians Dr. Lynn Henderson and Dr. Jennifer Ogeer will be sharing their perspectives on cultural humility in the upcoming issues of College Connection. Today, they answer the first question,“ How has your understanding of cultural humility evolved for your career, and how do you continue to grow in this area?”
Dr. Lynn Henderson
If I am being honest, the terminology surrounding cultural sensitivity, or cultural humility, was unfamiliar to me until I began working more formally in this academic space. When I was in general practice, I was concerned with the how of medicine but was less wellversed in the formalities surrounding the who. The people side of veterinary medicine was always important to me, but I approached it in an organic way without much formal training.
When I began working through my Master of Education degree, I embarked on a collaborative specialization in Indigenous health, and this is when I started digging into the literature surrounding‘ cultural safety’. When you begin working in the space, you wonder whether it’ s something that can be taught, or not.
How can we teach about engaging with clients from a variety of backgrounds without inadvertently perpetuating ideas around cultural‘ norms’, or expectations?
Placing individuals or groups of individuals into buckets, where we could theoretically learn certain generalized facts about them and then apply these to other members of
Dr. Lynn Henderson
a group, is ignorant and reductionist. Hence the move away from‘ competency’ towards‘ humility’; the main difference being where the onus on learning and adaptation is placed. Within the notion of‘ humility’ we place the work on the individual serving within a healthcare environment.
I, as practitioner and community member, must do the work required to understand my own biases and how I engage with the variety of individuals I see in my practice; the work turns towards reflexivity of the self. Living with humility implies that our journey is never done, that we are dedicated to a road of growth and learning that will never be complete. To endeavor to be done or to have completed this work, implies we know everything there is to know, and no more work needs to be done. The idea that it’ s our work on ourselves, rather than anything that comes from the people in front of us, is paramount in our becoming‘ culturally safe’, a term that inherently comes from the people in front of us rather than something we can ever call ourselves.
So, while the notion of cultural humility was never something I engaged with during general practice, I am all-in now and know that I will be on this learning journey for the rest of my life. I encourage those practitioners who may never have had experience with this idea, to embrace it wholeheartedly, as it’ s not only a journey about others, but more so a journey into ourselves.
About Dr. Henderson
Dr. Henderson is the Veterinary Director of the Kim & Stu Lang Community Healthcare Partnership Program. Dr. Henderson completed her Master of Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Higher Education for the Professions, alongside a Collaborative Specialization in Indigenous Health through the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. Dr. Henderson is currently pursuing a PhD in Social and Behavioural Public Health.
continues on next page
Public confidence in veterinary regulation cvo. org 4