Baxter Healthcare launches second Reconciliation Action Plan in conjunction with National Reconciliation Week (27 May - 3 June)
Reflect: Reconciliation Action Plan reaffirms formal commitment to reconciliation with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities
Employee cultural education programs and Baxter Healthcare Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Scholarship in Nursing fueling the organisations progress towards reconciliation
“Reflect” RAP furthers Baxter’s global racial justice initiative “ACT: Activating Change Today” with an intentional focus on addressing longstanding disparities in healthcare
Sydney, Australia -
Baxter Healthcare, a global leader in medical technology, has marked the start of Reconciliation Week (May 27 – June 3) with the release of its second Reflect: Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP).
The organisation’s new Reflect RAP reinforces the company's ongoing commitment to reconciliation for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and aligns to Baxter’s ACT: Activating Change Today program, a global multidimensional and multiyear initiative to advance racial justice within the workplace and within the communities and markets the company serves.
Baxter’s Reflect RAP outlines Baxter's objectives and activities to actively promote reconciliation and advance the company's partnerships and activities with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities and businesses, with an intentional focus on addressing longstanding disparities in healthcare.
Since launching its inaugural RAP in 2022, Baxter Healthcare has formed strong partnerships and implemented formal programs to educate and inform employees, from cultural training workshops and employee on-country experience programs, to promoting important awareness weeks including National Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week.
Baxter has also partnered with Western Sydney University to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander education and health programs. Beginning in 2021, the Baxter Healthcare Scholarship for Indigenous Nursing and Midwifery sponsors two final year Indigenous Western Sydney University students, awarding individual, one-time scholarships of $9,000 per student.
General Manager for Baxter Australia and New Zealand, Brendan Cummins, said Baxter’s Reconciliation Action Plan is a direct reflection of its employees’ passion and purpose to drive meaningful change in this space.
“Our reconciliation efforts have had a direct and positive effect on many of our local employees in Australia,” noted Cummins. “Acknowledgement of Country in formal meetings has evolved into bespoke, carefully researched, and heartfelt acknowledgements of specific Aboriginal communities that tended and cared for the lands for thousands of years, on which our facilities now sit. These conscious efforts to truly understand and appreciate the incredible histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, are critical to ensuring we authentically implement all the actions and initiatives set out in the Reflect framework before advancing to the Innovate RAP stage.”
Click here to view Baxter Healthcare’s new Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan.
Reconciliation Australia CEO, Karen Mundine, praised Baxter on strengthening its commitment to reconciliation with the publishing of its second Reflect RAP.
“Reconciliation Australia congratulates Baxter Healthcare on continuing its reconciliation journey by formally endorsing Baxter Healthcare’s second Reflect Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP),” Mundine said. “This Reflect RAP continues the journey and primes the workplace for future RAPs and reconciliation initiatives.
“Through this plan, Baxter Healthcare continues to play an important role in a network of more than 3,000 corporate, government, and not-for-profit organisations that have made a formal commitment to reconciliation through the RAP program.”
About Baxter
Every day, millions of patients, caregivers and healthcare providers rely on Baxter's leading portfolio of diagnostic, critical care, kidney care, nutrition, hospital and surgical products used across patient homes, hospitals, physician offices and other sites of care. For more than 90 years, we've been operating at the critical intersection where innovations that save and sustain lives meet the healthcare providers who make it happen. With products, digital health solutions and therapies available in more than 100 countries, Baxter's employees worldwide are now building upon the company's rich heritage of medical breakthroughs to advance the next generation of transformative healthcare innovations.