MADELEINE LEININGER: HER LIFE AND WORKS

Madeleine Leininger: Her Life and Works

Madeleine Leininger: Her Life and Works

Introduction

Nursing has changed in a variety of ways over the years, but one of the most important transitions has been related to the increasing cultural diversity of the American population. Both health care workers and patients are now more diverse than ever in terms of ethnicity, cultural traditions, religious beliefs and languages. Therefore it is important for nurses to understand how to work effectively with other cultures that they might not be entirely familiar with. This paper presents the life and works of Madeleine Leininger in a concise and comprehensive way.

Discussion

The Transcultural Nursing model, originated by Madeleine Leininger, provides an important framework for the modern nursing profession. The model was designed for the purpose of providing culturally specific care. Transcultural Nursing is intended to focus on the importance of individuality while at the same time helping nurses successfully interact with others of various ethnic, religious and social backgrounds and beliefs.

In 1995, Leininger defined the model as follows: "a formal area of study and practice in nursing focused upon comparative holistic cultural care, health, and illness patterns of individuals and groups with respect to differences and similarities in cultural values, beliefs, and practices with the goal to provide culturally congruent, sensitive, and competent nursing care to people of diverse cultures" (Bishop and Scudder, 2001).

When Leininger developed this model over five decades ago, America was just beginning to reflect cultural diversity. The concept of transcultural nursing was originated as a means of identifying both diverse and universal cultural variables found among different groups of people (Bishop and Scudder, 2001). The model has since been used at length to help nurses improve the care of patients from different cultural backgrounds by providing formal educational programs.

As this 50+ year old ...