Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Transcultural Nursing

Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Transcultural Nursing

Leininger’s Theory of Transcultural Nursing: Introduction

Nursing was hardly defined as an academic discipline or even as a profession in the 19th century (Alligood, 2014). In the 21st century, the recognition of nursing was observed in different practice areas, including education, leadership, informatics, and management. Nursing frameworks and theories start playing an important role in the work of hospitals and medical centers where nurses have to work. A nursing theory turns out to be a group of significant related concepts and relationships the purpose of which is to guide practice and promote the delivery of care.

A middle-range theory that stands somewhere between grand and practice theories due to the possibility to describe a concept in general and use a particular situation to explain the chosen phenomenon is chosen (Saba & McCormick, 2015). Leininger’s Transcultural Theory of Care is a comprehensive approach that may improve nursing care in diverse populations around the whole world using the significance of cultural beliefs and values supported by nurses and patients. This theory will be discussed in several sections: the importance of a theory, the summary of its main concepts, the application to education as a critical practice area, and conclusions where final evaluations can be given.

Transcultural Theory: Importance

Any nursing theory is crucial for the study as a part of a master’s program because it helps to understand the peculiar features of nursing care and improve practices from different perspectives. The importance of nursing theory, in general, to the nursing profession lies in the possibility to guide nursing and generate knowledge. The exchange of knowledge and the classification of information are integral for the nursing profession. This type of study cannot be neglected because it makes the practice complete. Nurses understand what they should do and identify the rules that should be followed.

The usefulness of nursing theory in the nursing profession is the possibility to integrate an increased number of nursing literature sources, concepts, and theories (Mill, Allen, & Morrow, 2016). Besides, as soon as nurses start learning nursing theory, they can know why they do something, and what they should achieve. In other words, the answers to any kind of supplementary question about nursing, care, and patients’ needs may be given in terms of nursing theory.

A nursing theory also helps to separate the nursing profession from other healthcare professions. There are many everyday practices that may enrich theory. In nursing, many values and beliefs are promoted. A theory is a chance for nursing to comprehend their goals and minimize the gap between theory and research. In comparison to other professions, nurses have to be involved in all sectors and be ready to assist in any sphere, including the organization and understanding of patient data, analyses and diagnoses, care plans, patient outcomes, family relations, patients’ needs, and other nursing interventions (Alligood, 2014).

However, there is one concern that should be regarded while using nursing theory within the profession. Nurses should be ready to make fast decisions and analyze diagnoses and patients’ data. This type of analysis is hard and complicated (Bousso, Poles, & Lopes, 2014), and nurses should find out the line between what the theory says and what the current situation is all about.

Madeleine Leininger’s Theory: Summary

Transcultural nursing is one of the well-known achievements demonstrated by Madeline Leininger in 1978. The development of the theory began in the middle of the 1960s, the main edition was made in 1978, and certain contributions and adjustments were done in her books about transcultural nursing in 1995 and 2002 (Alligood, 2014).

The author states that nursing is an important profession in the field of health care because its goal is to provide care in accordance with patients’ cultural values and practices. Leininger’s Transcultural Theory is also known as the Culture Care theory and based on the Sunrise Model. Leininger’s Transcultural Theory is based on the model with the help of which the concept of care may be defined as central to the nursing profession and used to clarify people in terms of the existing cultural beliefs, values, and norms (Russell, Brunero, & Lamont, 2014).

The main concepts of the chosen theory have to be properly understood and identified. First, the theorist believes that care is the core of nursing and even its dominant because there is no cure without caring, and there is always care with curing. Caring is the action in terms of which care is provide