What is cultural diversity

Culture is that which shapes us; it shapes our identity and influences our behavior. Each
race encompasses a multitude of different ethnic groups. An ethnic group refers to people who
are closely related to each other through characteristics such as culture, language, and religion.
Why is cultural diversity a “good thing”?
Culture is the lens with which we evaluate everything around us; we evaluate what is
proper or improper, normal or abnormal, through our culture. Cultural diversity is important
because our country, workplaces, and schools increasingly consist of various cultural, racial, and
ethnic groups. We can learn from one another, but first we must have a level of understanding
about each other in order to facilitate collaboration and cooperation. Furthermore, this diversity
makes our country a more interesting place to live, as people from diverse cultures contribute
language skills, new ways of thinking, new knowledge, and different experiences.
How can you support cultural diversity?
•Increase your level of understanding about other cultures by interacting with people outside of
your own culture
•Avoid imposing values on others that may conflict
•Recognize and understand that concepts within the helping profession, such as family, gender
roles, spirituality, and emotional well-being, vary significantly among cultures and influence
behavior.
•Intervene in an appropriate manner when you observe others engaging in behaviors that show
cultural insensitivity, bias, or prejudice.
•Be proactive in listening, accepting, and welcoming people and ideas that are different from
your own.
Cultural diversity supports the idea that every person can make a unique and positive
contribution to the larger society because of, rather than in spite of, their differences.
contributions from all groups are encouraged; people are empowered to achieve their full
potential; and differences are celebrated.
Madeleine Leininger is a nursing theorist who developed the Transcultural Nursing Theory
or Culture Care Nursing Theory.

Biography of Madeleine Leininger

Madeleine Leininger (July 13, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an internationally known
educator, author, theorist, administrator, researcher, consultant, public speaker, and the developer
of the concept of transcultural nursing.
She is a Certified Transcultural Nurse, a Fellow of the Royal College of Nursing in
Australia, and a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing.
Early Life
Madeleine Leininger was born on July 13, 1925, in Sutton, Nebraska.
Education
She earned a nursing diploma from St. Anthony’s Hospital School of Nursing, followed
by undergraduate degrees at Mount St. Scholastica College and Creighton University. Leininger
opened a psychiatric nursing service and educational program at Creighton University in Omaha,
Nebraska. She received a Master of Science in Nursing from the Catholic University of America
in 1954.And in 1965, Leininger embarked upon a doctoral program in Cultural and Social
Anthropology at the University of Washington in Seattle and became the first professional nurse
to earn a Ph.D.in anthropology.
Career and Appointments of Madeleine Leininger
While working in a child guidance home during the 1950s, Madeleine Leininger
experienced what she described as a cultural shock when she realized that children’s recurrent
behavioral patterns appeared to have a cultural basis. In 1954, she moved on to serve as
Associate Professor of Nursing and Director of the Graduate Program in Psychiatric Nursing at
the University of Cincinnati.
She was the first in the 1960s to coin the concept of “culturally congruent care,” which
was the goal of the Theory of Culture Care, and today the concept is being used globally. Her
official certifications read LL (Living Legend), Ph.D. (Doctor of Philosophy), LHD (Doctor of
Human Sciences), DS (Doctor of Science), CTN (Doctor of Science), RN (Registered Nurse),
FAAN (Fellow American Academy of Nursing), and FRCNA (Fellow of the Royal College of
Nursing in Australia).
Transcultural Nursing Theory
Through her observations, while working as a nurse, Madeleine Leininger identified a
lack of cultural and care knowledge as the missing component to a nurse’s understanding of the
many variations required inpatient care to support compliance, healing, and wellness, which led
her to develop the theory of Transcultural Nursing also known as Culture Care Theory.
 Leininger’s theory’s main focus is for nursing care to fit with or have beneficial
meaning and health outcomes for people of different or similar cultural backgrounds. With these,
she has developed the Sunrise Model in a logical order to demonstrate the interrelationships of
the concepts in her theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality.
Leininger’s Transcultural Nursing Theory
The Transcultural Nursing Theory or Culture Care Theory by Madeleine Leininger
involves knowing and understanding different cultures concerning nursing and health-illness
caring practices, beliefs, and values to provide meaningful and efficacious nursing care services
to people’s cultural values health-illness context.
Next are nursing care decisions and actions which involve cultural care
preservation/maintenance, cultural care accommodation/negotiation, and cultural care re-
patterning or restructuring. It is here that nursing care is delivered.
Major Concepts of the Transcultural Nursing Theory
The following are the major concepts and their definitions in Madeleine Leininger’s
Transcultural Nursing Theory.
Transcultural Nursing
Transcultural nursing is defined as a learned subfield
Ethnonursing
This is the study of nursing care beliefs, values, and practices as cognitively perceived
and known by a designated culture through their direct experience, beliefs, and value system
(Leininger, 1979).
Nursing
Nursing is defined as a learned humanistic and scientific profession and discipline
Professional Nursing Care (Caring)
Cultural Congruent (Nursing) Care
Health
It is a state of well-being that is culturally defined, valued, and practiced.
Human Beings
Such are believed to be caring and capable of being concerned about others’ needs, well-
being, and survival.
Society and Environment
Worldview
Worldview is how people look at the world, or the universe, and form a “picture or value
stance” about the world and their lives.
Cultural and Social Structure Dimensions
Cultural and social structure dimensions are defined as involving the dynamic patterns
and features of interrelated structural and organizational factors of a particular culture
(subculture or society)
Environmental Context
Culture
Culture is learned, shared, and transmitted values, beliefs, norms, and lifeways of a
particular group that guides their thinking, decisions, and actions in patterned ways.
Culture Care
Culture Care Diversity
Culture care diversity indicates the variabilities and/or differences in meanings, patterns,
values, lifeways, or symbols of care within or between collectives related
Subconcepts
Generic (Folk or Lay) Care Systems
Emic
Knowledge gained from direct experience or directly from those who have experienced it.
Etic
The knowledge that describes the professional perspective.
Care
Culture Shock
Culture shock may result when an outsider attempts to comprehend or adapt effectively
to a different cultural group.
Sunrise Model of Madeleine Leininger’s Theory
The Sunrise Model is relevant because it enables nurses to develop critical and complex
thoughts about nursing practice.

The cultural care worldview flows into knowledge about individuals, families, groups,
communities, and institutions in diverse health care systems. This knowledge provides culturally
specific meanings and expressions concerning care and health.
Three modes of nursing care decisions and actions
➢ Cultural care preservation or Maintenance
➢ Cultural care accommodation or Negotiation
➢ Culture care repatterning or Restructuring
➢ Assumptions
The following are the assumptions of Madeleine Leininger’s theory:
1. Different cultures perceive, know, and practice care differently,
2. Values, beliefs, and practices for culturally
3. While human care is universal across cultures
 4. Care is the distinct, dominant, unifying, and central focus of nursing, and
while curing and healing cannot occur effectively without care, care may
occur without a cure.
5. Nursing care will be culturally congruent or beneficial only when the
nurse knows the clients.
6. If clients receive nursing care that is not at least reasonably culturally
congruent
Analysis
In Leininger’s nursing theory, it was stated that the nurse would help the client move
towards amelioration or improvement of their health practice or condition.
Strengths
Leininger’s theory is essentially parsimonious in that the necessary concepts are
incorporated in such a manner that the theory and its model can be applied in many different
settings.
Weakness
The theory and model are not simple in terms.