Transcultural Nursing Video Analysis

Theories of transcultural nursing with established clinical approaches to clients were founded in the mid-1960s and are an essential aspect of healthcare today. The ever-increasing multicultural population in the United States poses a significant challenge to nurses providing individualized and holistic care to their patients. Accurate assessments identify factors that define transcultural nursing and analyze methods to promote culturally competent nursing care.” (Maier-Lorentz, 2008)

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.

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,

Cultural competence can be defined as using the ability of one’s awareness, attitude, knowledge and skill to effectively interact with a patient’s many cultural differences. Madeline Leininger, a pioneer on transcultural nursing describes it this way; “a formal area of study and practice focused on comparative human-care differences and similarities of the beliefs, values and patterned lifeways of cultures to provide culturally congruent, meaningful, and beneficial health care to people” (Barker, 2009, p. 498). The importance of cultural diversity in healthcare allows for the delivery of appropriate cultural autonomy. Showing respect for others will lead to trust between nurse and

Giger and Davidhizar’s Transcultural Assessment Model is a valuable and functional assessment tool that evaluates the different cultural variables and how those variables effect health, illness and behaviors (Giger, 2013). This philosophy considers the uniqueness of each individual, understanding that the individual is unique, a product of their culture, religion, environment socioeconomic status and diversity. Giger and Dividhizar propose that, as health care providers, we need an acute awareness of the ethnicity and culture of each individual, having the knowledge and understanding to care for them as

To be a successful culturally competent nurse, nurses should assume attitudes to promote transcultural care. Nurses need to be aware of their patient’s cultural differences - taking time to understand and value patient’s cultural needs and perspectives. Nurses should show respect and concern for patients. Nurses should also be empathic with their patients.

The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model was developed for undergraduate nursing students in 1988 by Joyce Newman Giger and Ruth Davidhizar. The assessment model provides a framework for nursing students to easily assess and provide care for patients from many different cultural backgrounds. Six cultural aspects are highlighted: communication, time, space, social organization, environmental control, and biological variations (Giger & Davidhizar, 2002).

The purpose of Transcultural theory is to discover human care diversities in areas related to worldview or social structure and then find ways to give culturally competent care to individuals of diverse cultures and to help them regain their well-being in a culturally appropriate way

Canada is a country composed of many different people from many different cultures including some native indigenous people, much like the United States. Similar to many other countries, Canada is attempting to become more culturally conscious and provide culturally-competent healthcare. According to Leininger and McFarland (2002), “there is an urgent need to integrate the many cultures of Canada into a harmonious, functioning society using sound cultural care research-based data in practice” (p. 494). Although the movement towards transcultural nursing care began in the 1960s when Leininger visited Canada to promote the study of transcultural nursing, it is still a work in progress as there are not a great number of nurses prepared by formal education to promote and develop transcultural nursing care (Leininger & McFarland, 2014). Canada’s current health care system is “publicly financed, but privately run” and based on the five founding principles that mandate the health care must be universal, portable, comprehensive, accessible and publicly administered (Cackett, Ferguson, & Irvine, 2005). The ten provinces within Canada are individually responsible for funding, developing and assessing the provisions of hospital care, providing salaries to health professionals and determining reimbursement for physician services (Cackett, Ferguson, & Irvine, 2005).

The development of the Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model (GDTAM) came about because of nursing students’ need to provide culturally diverse care for patients. The model acknowledges that each culture is individually unique and assesses them according to six phenomena: communication, space, social organization, time, environmental control, and biological variations. In this model “nurses must use transcultural nursing knowledge as a skill and an art to provide care to diverse populations in a culturally appropriate and competent manner” (Sagar, 2012, p. 57). It goes on to discuss how the model sees cultural competence as “a dynamic process implemented by an individual or health care agency by using significant interventions based on the client’s ‘cultural

Transcultural nursing founded by

The purpose of this paper is to discuss the eight reasons why transcultural nursing (TCN) is a necessary specialty, according to Dr. Madeleine Leininger. Dr. Madeleine Leininger was a pioneer in this field of nursing. I will define the meaning of cultural diversity and relate it to nursing practice. I will explain three ways that I provide culturally sensitive care to my patients. I work in an outpatient obstetrics and gynecology office, where we see many different cultures.

The Transcultural Assessment Model, developed by Giger and Davidhizar (2006), focuses on assessment and intervention from a transcultural nursing perspective. In this model, the person is seen as a unique cultural being influenced by culture, ethnicity, and

The Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality is founded on the principle the compassion is the crux of nursing (Black, 2014, p.277). In order to provide care effectively, one must demonstrate empathy toward his or her patient. Additionally, Leininger’s theory calls for transcultural nursing, which is centered on culture as the basis for care delivery; essentially, it is the provision of culturally competent care (Narayanasamy, 1999). To allow the nurse to assess a patient culturally, Leininger devised the sunrise model, which encompasses multiple traits specific to an individual’s cultural background.