MADELEINE LEININGER

TRANSCULTURAL THEORY IN NURSING

“Care is the heart of nursing: Care is power, Care is essential to healing: Care is curing: and care is
the central and dominant focus of nursing and transcultural nursing decisions and actions.”

Getting to know the Theorist:

 Born: July 13,1925 ( Sutton, Nebraska U.S)
 Died: August 10, 2012 (Omaha, Nebraska U.S.)
 She obtained her basic nursing education at St. Anthony’ School of Nursing, Denver,
Colorado, and graduated in 1948.
 She merited her Bachelor of Science degree from Benedectine College, Atchison, Kansas.
 In 1953, she obtained her degree of Master of Science (Doctor for Philosophy) in
Anthropology from the University of Washington, Seattle.
 Mother of Transcultural Nursing and founder of the Transcultural Nursing Society

Metaparadigm in Nursing

Person

Humans have endure within cultures and through place and time bacause they have been
able to care for infants, children, and the elderly in a variety of ways and in many different
environment. Thus, humans are universally caring being who survive in a diversity of cultures
through the ability to provide the universally of care in a variety of ways according to differing
cultures, needs, and settings.

Environment
In terms of Environment, Leininger speaks about worldview, social structure, and
environmental context. Environment framework is defined as being the
Totality of an event, situation, or experience.

Her description of culture centers on a particular group (society) and the

Patterning of actions, thoughts, and decisions that occurs as the result of
“learned, shared, and transmitted values, belief, norms, and lifeways”.
Health
She discussed about components of health, especifically:
 Health systems
 Health care practices
 Changing health patterns
 Health promotions
 Health maintenance
Health is a key concept in transcultural nursing.
Health is seen as universal across cultures but distinct within each culture
In a way that represents the beliefs, values, and practices of the particular culture.
Thus, health is both universal and diverse.
Nursing
Leininger gave three types of nursing actions that are culturally based and thus
Consistent with the names and values of the clients, these are:
 Cultural care preservation/maintenance
 Cultural care accommodation/negotiation

 Cultural care repatterning/restructuring

Transcultural Theory in Nursing

Leininger presented her assumptions which support her claim that “different cultures
perceive, know, and practice care in different ways, yet there are some commonalities about
care among all cultures of the world”
(Leininger, 1985)

Major Ideas of Cultural Care

 Cultural care
 Culture
 Cultural care diversity
 Caring
 Care
 Cultural care universality
  Nursing
 Worldview
 Environmental context
 Ethnohistory
 Generic ( folk or lay ) care system
 Professional care system
 Health
 Cultural care preservation or maintenance
Strengths and Weaknesses

Strengths:

• With the theory focused on the concept of culture in providing nursing care to
patients, it helps the nurse to be more culture sensitive.
• Compared to other theories which focused on people, health, environment, and
nursing, Leininger highlighted on care as core of nursing, however with the
assumption of it’s based on culture data.

Weakness:
• It can also be the primary cause of error in making clinical decisions like
misperception of outcomes and misperception of the values patients place in
outcomes.
• There can be a problem in adapting or integrating the culture of other which can be
the cause of cultural shock on the part of the nurse. The theory doesn’t give any
attention to the disease, symptoms, treatment, etc.