What Is Transcultural Nursing?

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

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 &

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.

Statistics show that the Columbus, Ohio metro area is becoming more diverse. Even though the majority of the population is made up of Whites, that percentage is decreasing while the percentage of Blacks, Latinos and Asians is increasing (Diversity Data, 2012). I work in an outpatient unit that serves a diverse patient population, and Leininger’s concepts of transcultural nursing highlight the importance of learning about the cultural influences that affect the health and wellness of ethnic populations (Andrews & Boyle, 2016). Transcultural nursing addresses cultural influences such as values, beliefs, and behavior and examines how they affect health and wellness. In this paper, I will discuss perceptions of health and illness in the Hispanic community, examine the overarching issue presented in a video that I reviewed, discuss what can be done to overcome the issue in the video, and share a barrier that I experience in my nursing practice and how I overcome the barrier.

It is important for nurses to become sensitive to these differing values, so that they can better understand patient’s behaviors and how to effectively care for them. For a nurse to become culturally competent, they must begin by recognizing their own cultural values and biases, and be sensitive to how other cultures differ from their own. Then, they must attempt to learn, understand, and apply other’s cultural values and beliefs while caring for them. The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment Model is a tool for nurses to use to

Transcultural Nursing enables nurses to communicate more effectively and assess more accurately the cultural expression of pain and to provide culturally appropriate interventions to prevent or alleviate discomfort. One of the fundamentals of nursing is to be able to make accurate assessment. Assessment is the key to saving lives and it begins with the nurses because nurses are the gateway to the healthcare team. Unites States is a country of diversities with patients of different cultural belief, and nurse must have cultural awareness to provide best care for their patient. Hence a nurse should be able to think critically and make right assessment at the right

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

The table shows the RN has higher number of employment 260,300 following by aged care and disable carer with 153,200. Within the health care sector, the occupation as a RN and aged and disability carer seem to have more employment rate. Therefore, I would like to extend my career development working in an aged care home and registered nurse in a hospital. For my career, I have chosen two sectors with in the health industry: aged care and mental health. Before, completing my RN, I would like to develop my career in aged care that will ultimately help in my career working as an RN.

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