Table 3.

Indicative quotations: the interplay of institutional, professional and personal values

Participants	Quote
P31 (female, nurse) P30 (female, nurse) P28 (female, nurse)	P31: The patient has to be able to say, “I have cancer. I’m having treatment. I’m having chemotherapy for my cancer”. So I’m pretty strict about that […] It’s very important, principally, for the patient to understand that they may have a life-limiting illness and that they’re actually aware. I just don’t think it’s a safe practice to be vague about the fact that you actually have cancer. I just do not think it’s safe at all. It causes a feeling of tension between the professional people and the patients […] P30: But, also, what have they consented to if they don’t know? P31: That’s exactly right. P28: They don’t understand (FG4).
P11 (female, medical practitioner)	I think the western medicine concept of patient autonomy and open disclosure, we still try and stick to that (FG2).
P29 (female, social worker) P30 (female, nurse)	P29: So we have to look at how can we meet people’s needs. Even looking when we’re trying to reflect on who’s actually using our service. So we had a really good talk with one of the diversity health workers, a Chinese diversity health worker, to look at who’s engaging and why they might not be, what can we do […] and it’s interesting about who we’re servicing and why. P30: But also, if we don’t meet the cultural needs while they’re in hospital and try to box them into our western way of thinking, as soon as they leave the building they’re going to slide back under the radar with no supports and go, “Well I’m not doing it that way”. P29: Yep. P30: And we’ve done them no service whatsoever— P29: Yeah. P30: —and they could end up compromised without the appropriate supports in the community (FG4).
P2 (female, physiotherapist)	I’m not going to go up and say, “You’ve got cancer”, but if the patient asks me, “What is wrong with me?” then I have a professional and a medicolegal responsibility to actually tell them knowing full well that the patient’s probably never going to ask me or have already kind of worked it out themselves. But it’s that really internal moral and ethical, “Where do I stand in this in terms of my professionalism?” (FG1).
P22 (female, community worker)	It’s only when an ethical issue comes into that that a professional would examine their own culture and (be) aware of their limitations. If you have somebody that doesn’t believe in blood transfusion, what do you do then? The professional believes that he doesn’t want to do that. That’s a limitation there, the limitation that the doctor has, as to whether they have to pull out and put somebody else (in), otherwise they’ve got a problem too, if it is a problem. It’s culture in there too (FG3).