Leininger’s Transcultural Theory
The practice of nursing in today’s multicultural societies calls for nurses to identify and meet the cultural needs of diverse groups of people; to understand the social and cultural reality of the client, family, and community; to develop expertise in the implementation of culturally acceptable strategies for the provision of nursing care, and to identify and use appropriate resources for health teaching that is acceptable to the client. Undeniably, this cultural diversity necessitates that the care provided be compatible with the needs of the culturally diverse population. Madeleine Leininger is recognized worldwide as the founder of transcultural nursing, her theory is known as the Theory of Culture Care. Culture Care or Transcultural Nursing deals with nursing and the culture of the clients (Leininger, 1997). In order to provide culturally sensitive, individualized, and holistic care, nurses and other health care professionals must embrace Madeleine Leininger’s Transcultural Nursing Theory, which promotes cultural sensitivity in the provision of care to a culturally diverse group of patients (Leininger, 1997).
Overview of the Theory of Culture Care
Madeleine Leininger realized in the mid-1950s that care and culture were the two major and significant nursing phenomena that had not been formally and systematically studied. She then began to investigate these phenomena in order to advance nursing science knowledge from a global transcultural nursing perspective. Reflecting on her educational and practice experiences, it became evident to Leininger that care and culture were invisible and unknown phenomena that had obviously been ignored as essential knowledge and skills to advance nursing as a discipline and profession (Leininger, 1997). Her awareness of these major deficits in nursing enabled her to foresee the need for a body of humanistic and scientific knowledge with concomitant
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