Phenomenon of Concern or Problems Addressed by the Madeleine Leininger’s theory of culture care Theory

Madeleine Leininger’s theory of culture care focuses on contemporary culturally diverse care factors that have profound impacts on the health of individuals or groups (Butts & Rich, 2010). The purpose of the transcultural theory is to develop a harmonious civilisation care training using evocative research results. The theory addresses the need to integrate nursing techniques and anthropological concepts to nurse diseases from a cultural outlook of a patient. It seeks the understanding of nursing practitioners to treat patients without interfering with their cultural values. The theory holds that the assimilation of religious and cultural rites into the care plan can profoundly determine the recovery of the patient. To incorporate the theory into practice, Leininger established the Transcultural Nursing Society to harmonise the thoughts of nurses globally. The nursing society facilitates various issues such as nursing consultation, learning, direct care, ethnonursing research, and policymaking via an online platform to develop universally accepted holistic methods that find their use in health care (Jeffreys, 2008). Nevertheless, the greatest significance of the theory is to shift nurses from traditional ethnocentric perceptions to enriching multicultural nursing practices to improve the efficiency of administering special care to patients (Butts & Rich, 2010).

Theory Description

Inductive Reasoning

Leininger’s transcultural care theory uses inductive reasoning to elucidate congruent culture care norms and values. The theory develops on the behavioural patterns and commonality of patients. The development of Leininger’s concept uses an inductive research technique known as ethnonursing. Ethnonursing is a qualitative anthropological research method that is used for description, documentation, and explanation of nursing care concepts across disciplines (Sagar, 2012). Leininger used this inductive technique to study the beliefs, values, language, attitudes, and norms of different cultures in a nursing context. The use inductive reasoning makes the theory derive qualitative comparisons and inferences rather than quantitative inferences that nurses derived from traditional hypotheses. As a result, the conceptual framework allows representational analysis of culture care diversities and universality in an attempt to seek holistic nursing knowledge that meets the needs of a multicultural society (Butts & Rich, 2010).

Major Concepts of the Culture Care Theory

Numerous concepts have been developed in the light of the culture care theory. The major concepts of the theory include transcultural nursing, ethnonursing (aforementioned), professional nursing care, and cultural congruence. Jeffreys (2008) describes transcultural nursing as an approach to treatment that focuses on investigation of the patient’s cultural background prior to the development of a nursing plan. Transcultural nursing entails the performance of a comparative study and cultural analysis in relation to nursing and preservation of values, norms, attitudes, beliefs, and practices of the individual or group of patients. Ethnonursing is a conceptual framework that facilitates the study of nursing care factors in transcultural nursing (Sagar, 2012). Professional nursing care is a concept that deploys professional care systems to elucidate inductive reasoning by prompting cognitive thoughts to develop formally assistive, supportive, facilitative, and enabling nursing techniques with a view of improving the patient’s health condition. Lastly, cultural congruence is a formalist concept that builds on cultural dynamism. It explains the interaction between the provider of culture care and the patient (Jeffreys, 2008).