Madeleine Leininger Nursing Theory

“Health is influenced by culture and beliefs” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). In order for the nurse to properly care for the patient, she must know and understand the patient’s culture. “Cultural care is a comprehensive model that includes the assessment of a client’s cultural needs, beliefs, and health care practices” (NRS-429V, 2011, p. 1). It is not enough to just know where the patient lives or where he came from. The nurse must embrace the concept of cultural competence and cultural awareness. This requires not only the awareness of the cultural beliefs and values of their patients, but also

The nursing profession has a long history of assessing and placing patient needs first when giving care. The tenets of nursing practice include meeting those needs using individualized care by collaborating with the patient, family, and health care team members. (American Nurses Association, 2010). The concept of transcultural nursing aligns with these tenets because it calls on nurses to provide patient-centered care by taking into account the patient’s background, beliefs, culture and values. In this paper, I will identify the factors that made it necessary to develop the transcultural nursing theory, describe the meaning of diversity and its relationship to the field of nursing, and explain three ways that I provide culturally sensitive care to my patients.

Leininger (1988) defined nursing as a transcultural phenomenon requiring knowledge of different cultures to provide care that is congruent with the clients’ life ways, social structure, and environmental context. This definition from the founder of transcultural care would support applying a cultural sensitive nursing care in the clinical setting, and highly linked to her definition of transcultural nursing as a legitimate and formal area of study focused on culturally based care beliefs, values, and practices to help cultures or subcultures maintain or regain their health (wellbeing) and face disabilities or death in culturally congruent and beneficial caring ways (Leininger, 1970, 1978, 1995). Moreover Leininger summarized the process of applying transcultural care as providing care that fits with cultural beliefs and life ways. From a professional perspective, it refers to the use of emic (local cultural knowledge and life ways) in meaningful and tailored ways that fit with etic (largely professional outsiders’ knowledge), in other words care should be individualized according to patient’s culture to promote holistic and effective nursing care.

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

Cultural competence in nursing is imperative for effective patient care. A nurse must know his or her own values and beliefs as well as knowing about a patient cultural practices in relation to healthcare. Cultural competence is defined by some as: “the learned, shared and transmitted values, beliefs, norms and lifeways of a particular group that guides their thinking, decisions and actions.” Also it is noted that an important change to this definition is “the recognition of the dynamic,

In order to deliver nursing care to different cultures, nurses are expected to understand and provide culturally competent health care to diverse individuals. Culturally competent care is tailored to the specific needs of each client, while incorporating the individual’s beliefs and values (Stanhope & Lancaster, 2006, p. 90). By being culturally competent, nurses are able to help improve health outcomes by using cultural knowledge and specific skills in selecting interventions that are specific to each client (Stanhope & Lancaster). Therefore, nurses “should perform a cultural assessment on every client with whom they interact with” (Stanhope &

With the large increase multicultural population in the United States, nurses encounter patients with differences in healthcare beliefs, values and customs. To provide adequate nursing care, nurses must be aware of these differences. They must respect and acknowledge the patient’s culture. To do this, nurses need education on cultural competence to ensure patient satisfaction and better patient outcomes.

Culture competence is a quality that any nurse should have. The article that I decided to research refers to the impact that language and different cultures have on a patient’s health. It is the duty of health care professionals to attempt to learn about different cultures and to be sensitive to the way patient’s feel about their beliefs. Once the nurse understands a patient’s

In the profession of nursing, an essential aspect is the ability for a nurse to provide culturally competent care to each one of his/her patients. This requires the nurse to understand how a person’s culture can affect the way they care for them. The focus of this paper will be on a model put together to assist nurses in providing care to culturally diverse patients, specifically caring for patients a part of the Chinese culture in the children and family transition of life. The summary and application of the six phenomena in the relation to the Chinese culture followed by the nursing implications of those cultural variances are described below.

Health is defined a state of wellbeing which is equally viewed by many different cultures. However, the definition of wellbeing is seen differently among cultures, in relationship to their beliefs and values. (DeNisco & Barker, 2015). Cultural care in nursing is a very important part of nursing care, whether the nurse is a bedside RN or a practicing primary care NP. There are many theories in nursing related to cultural care. Most encompass the need for nurses to take into consideration the cultural caring behaviors and values of individuals and families to provide culturally competent nursing care.

For example, Madeleine Leininger’s culture care theory has been developed as a nursing theory relevant in a changing world as the nurse works to discover the health, illness, and care needs of patients, members, families, groups, and institutions from similar and diverse cultures (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2014). Furthermore, utilizing this culture care theory in nursing can improve care, reduce health risks, and influence the economy.

According to Murphy (2011), cultural competence is having the “knowledge, attitudes, and skills that support caring for people across different languages and cultures” (p.5). It is important to be cultural competent when providing nursing care for patients because you never know who will be laying in the bed. As a nurse, you will have to care for people from all walks of life no matter where you work. In this paper, I will be discussing the similarities and difference between the cultures in Mexico and Nigeria. Mexico is located in North America, just south of the United States. Nigeria is located in West Africa.

Madeleine Leininger’s cultural care theory is one of the most influential modern day theories in nursing. Leininger describes her theory as one that is cultural sensitive that is tailored to address patients of different cultures, backgrounds, or origins. Leininger develops the cultural care theory due to the fact that she believes that nurses are caring for their patients as a one hat fits all, and not taking into consideration the patient 's background or their culture.

Madeleine Leininger’s theory helped to better define the expectations of the nurse-patient relationships. Leininger’s passion was for nurses to submerge themselves in a patient’s cultural, educating themselves to better understand a patient’s needs. The new style of care that corresponds to what the patient considers suitable according to his or her cultural expectations. Now nurses can plan care using interventions that are culturally congruent with culture and the patient’s needs. This allows for all patients needs to be fully

Imogene M. King was born January 30, 1923. As a teenager King had dreams to become a teacher. She was set on achieving this goal, until her uncle who was the town surgeon offered to pay for her to go to nursing school. She reluctantly accepted his offer thinking this would be a great opportunity to escape the small town life. King graduated from St. John’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1945. She never lost the dream of becoming a teacher, so she went on to earn her Bachelor of Science in Nursing Education from St. Louis University in 1948. This began her long career as a nurse, and for her becoming known as one of the great nursing theorist for her work in developing the Theory of Goal Attainment. Her work is still today taught to many nursing students.