Universal Theory And Cultural Care Diversity By Madeleine Leininger

Cultural diversity in the health care setting is increasing each year. Knowing how to care for patients of different religious and spiritual faiths is essential to providing high-quality, patient-centered care. The author of this paper will research three lesser-known religions; Taoism, Sikhism and Shamanism. Through this paper, she will provide a brief background on each of the three religions and present information regarding spiritual perspectives on healing, critical components of healing and health care considerations associated with each religion.

Care and culture are the key constructs that make up the Culture Care Theory. This theory differed from other nurses’ work or mindset because nurse leaders relied heavily up on the four metaparadigm concepts of person, environment, health, and nursing to explain nursing (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah, 2015). Leininger realized that those four metaparadigm concepts were to limited in its scope regarding nursing and culture and care ideologies. Interestingly, care and culture were excluded from the metaparadigm. “It is not logical to use nursing to explain nursing” (McFarland and Wehbe-Alamah, 2015). That is definitely a contradiction in terms and represents scholarly research

Madeliene Leininger was one of the first people to recognize that cultural differences influence an individual’s response to health care activities and that these cultural differences also affect experiences of well-being, health, illness, disability and death. During her career, Leininger noticed eight factors occurring in the world around her that directly impacted people of different cultures. She used these factors to frame the theory of transcultural nursing, and today, they are still relevant. She observed a sharp increase in population migration between countries across the globe. She experienced people who

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.

Health in all cultures is an important aspect of life. A person’s cultural background, religion and/or beliefs, greatly influences a person’s health and their response to medical care (Spector, 2004). These diverse cultures guide decisions made in daily life; what food eaten, living arrangements made, medications taken and medical advice listened to. A nurse must be knowledgeable and respectful of these diverse cultures and understand their importance when providing care. This understanding helps to build a strong nurse/patient relationship, increasing patient compliance, which ensures positive outcomes are met. Patients who are satisfied

In taking care of a patient, it is important for nurses to respect the patient, their beliefs, and their right to autonomy. Provision One in the Code of Ethics states “the nurse practices with compassion and respect for inherent dignity, worth, and unique attributes of every person” (ANA, 2015, p. 7). With a Jehovah’s Witness patient, the nurse must first acquire information regarding their religion and how it may impact their care and their wishes related to their healthcare. Once their patient’s beliefs are noted and understood, the nurse must establish a professional and therapeutic relationship with their patient without bias to their religion and the associated beliefs. The duty to act without bias can be found outlined in Provision 1.2 (ANA, 2015).

Nursing is a continually evolving discipline. Nursing theories and conceptual frameworks serve as basis for research, education, and standards of practice. Theory plays a vital role in every nurse’s practice as it aims to define, explain, and predict the phenomenon of nursing. It helps the nursing profession expand its practice, develop research studies, and enhance patient care. This paper will discusses two of the major nursing theorists and their respective works. The paper will focus on Dorothea Orem’s self-care theory and Madeleine Leininger’s theory of culture care diversity and universality. These famous nursing scholars have contributed immensely to the study of nursing and its practice.

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,

It is not always easy to decide about the care of a patient, because the patient’s cultural beliefs do not always coincide with the beliefs of the nurse. Ephesians 4:2 in “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love” (English Standard Version). God has loved us unconditionally from the beginning of time, and has always been patient with us. It is time that humans show the love that God has for us onto others and respect one another no matter the differences. This paper will discuss the importance of respecting another person’s culture, what stigma is and whether if Lia’s family viewed her that way, brief history of the Hmong, the preventions that could have taken place, and how to incorporate

Who is the person the nurse is caring for? Where is that person from? Does this person speak English, or understand what the caregiver is saying? What is this person’s cultural background? What are the health beliefs of this person, what are their illness beliefs and practices? These questions are answered differently depending upon the person and their heritage. As healthcare providers it is important to have a broad knowledge base in regards to different cultures and people’s practices to deliver effective health care. In 2006, the population of

Nurses have the responsibility of caring for a diverse group of people. These people come from different cultures, races, and religious backgrounds. Religion plays a major role in patient care and has for many years. Cultural competency is a major component of nursing practices. Understanding culture is imperative in knowing what is important to a patient and how to address his or her healthcare needs. Understanding culture is also important when determining what suggestions to make about interventions for treatment. Culture is defined as many people interacting and sharing with one another their patterns of behavior, beliefs and values (Burkhardt, G. & Nathaniel, A., 2014).

I consider myself to be a fairly traditional American white woman, with non-denominational Christian beliefs. My ethnicity is sort of a mixture of Irish, German, Native American and a few others, but my main cultural background is traditional American. I do not put a lot of emphasis on my ethnicity, because in my opinion and the opinion of many others as well, Caucasian American can be race and ethnicity. I celebrate traditional American holidays such as Christmas, Independence Day and Thanksgiving. I do eat traditional American foods, but I also love ethnic foods of all kinds. According to McKinney, James, Murray, Nelson and Ashwill (2013), “Belief in Jesus Christ as the son of God and the Messiah comprises the central core of Christianity” and “Study of biblical scripture; practicing faith, good works, and sacramental rites (e.g., baptism, communion, and others); and prayer are common among most Christian faiths” (p.44). I am non-denominational; however, I do believe this statement sums up the main core of my beliefs. I pray, I have been baptized, I believe in good deeds, and attending church. The only difference is that I do not believe that you must attend church or partake in communion to have a relationship with God; I believe that relationship is rather personal. Now in terms of American culture in the healthcare setting, Euromed Info Online indicates that Western industrialized societies such as the United States, which

As America is rich in multi cultural immigrants’ diversities in culture, beliefs, faiths and religion are not uncommon among American population. Health care profession is one of the major areas that are affected with these diversities of culture, beliefs, faiths and religion. While there are many advantages of rich and diverse heritage, it’s challenging for health care professionals to deal with those from various faith/ spiritual background, especially for minority religious groups. However, in order to provide best available care health care professionals

Madeleine Leininger’s cultural care theory is one of the most influential modern day theories in nursing. Leininger describes her theory as one that is cultural sensitive that is tailored to address patients of different cultures, backgrounds, or origins. Leininger develops the cultural care theory due to the fact that she believes that nurses are caring for their patients as a one hat fits all, and not taking into consideration the patient 's background or their culture.

The premise of Madeleine Leininger ‘s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality is that one must regard his or her patient both holistically and with respect to the patient’s given cultural background. Leininger aims to establish a nurse-patient relationship in which communication and collaboration are culturally congruent. Via such interactions, a nurse can hypothetically deliver individualized, culturally competent care. However, while Leininger’s theory has many benefits and clear applicability in a multicultural society, its execution may fall short due to the predominating social norms and values held by larger society.