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Madeline Leininger—Transcultural Nursing Theory

Group 1 Membership and Assigned Theorist: Madeline Leininger—Transcultural Nursing Theory

1. Packet of Materials

A packet of materials should be posted to the Discussion Area for peer critique and submitted to the Submissions Area. The packet should include a detailed outline of the PowerPoint presentation and a one-page summary of each of five relevant articles on or about the theory and at the top of the page should have the complete reference in APA format. It should also include any handouts, such as charts, diagrams, or definitions, which will facilitate understanding of the PowerPoint presentation and the theory itself.

Packet Requirements:

· Post “packet of materials and PowerPoint presentation to the Week 4 discussion area for peer critique

o 5 - 1-page summaries of 5 articles (articles included primary, secondary, and research sources).

o A one-page summary of a relevant article on the theory or its application is needed. The top of each summary should have the complete reference in APA format.

o Select article from a published a peer reviewed, scholarly journal (5-year-old or less unless it is a primary article from the theorist)

o It should also include any handouts, such as charts, diagrams, or definitions, which will facilitate understanding of the PowerPoint presentation and the theory itself.

Critique and analysis:

1. Leininger’s CCT is a significant framework in the nursing field; it is largely responsible for facilitating the shift from a unilateral cultural perspective of nursing to a multilateral form (Leininger, 2008, p. 1).

1. Being that the theory was established over half a century ago, it has had plenty of opportunity to be well-integrated into nursing practice and education, which it did. The theory is based on practical experience, which is a strong component of any theoretical framework. In order for a theory to be beneficial to a discipline, it must have practical advantages.

1. Nursing as a professional field is already under a lot of pressure, and generally does not spend time working out theoretical aspects that have no practical basis or measure.

1. The fact that Leininger’s theory also seeks to answer nursing issues that were relevant to that period in nursing further supports this idea (Sitzman, 2015, p. 93). So there is not a shadow of a doubt that CCT is a cornerstone of modern nursing practice, in which cultural diversity is an increasingly influential factor in healthcare.

1. In general, there is not much to criticize in terms of inefficiencies, specifically those that might be due to any lack of practical perspective on the theorist’s part. Leininger is well-intentioned and articulate in her approach to transcultural care, providing a general summary of the theory with 13 essential tenets of the framework, and 11 inherent assumptions that support its integration with practice (Sitzman, 2015, p. 95).

1. These things have sufficiently served as the foundation of transcultural nursing as it is today, and Leininger has even made several attempts to keep the concept up to date by revising the theory and adding to it as necessary (Leininger, 2008; Sitzman, 2015).

1. Yet at the same time, the theory seems a bit general in some places, and in others even seems a bit off. For instance, Leininger (2008) holds that “culture is the broadest, most comprehensive, holistic and universal feature of human beings,” which she further extrapolates to mean that culture is the primary mechanism of health care (p. 2)

1. To support this point, we should consider the role of culture in society. In complex societies like America, culture’s role is much harder to define, because a singular culture itself is less clear. However, a natural tendency of people as humans is to form relationships with each other.

1. The way that these relationships are categorized can be said to give rise to various cultures. For example, people of a common culture would form strong, supportive relationships, while two of a less common culture might identify with each other much less due to a difference in values.

1. Consider, for example, civil rights. In the U.S., this movement caused a swelling of “black pride,” a unique culture in its own right.

1. Although the goal was to achieve a unification of society, its mechanism was to highlight the differences in quality between black and white lifestyles, which in turn gave rise to the notion of two separate cultures, even within the same social institution.

1. As such, how can we truly suggest that culture is the most universal of humanistic traits that would serve to benefit health care? Again, it should not be taken to mean that culture is useless in understanding care perspectives, but rather that culture is secondary to the relationships that we as people establish with each other based on our common humanity.

1. To further support this criticism, let us look at how the culture of the United States has developed as a single unit, as opposed to the multitude of factions that it is actually comprised of.

1. If we consider the history of the U.S.’s culture as beginning from its foundation, there is no clear point of origin, as the first settlers were from all over the world.

1. The culture of the U.S. became largely based on race and sex, as the social structure strongly favored Anglo Saxon males. Even so, the country continued to be built on immigrants, who brought their own unique health challenges that were not considered to be of significant interest to the primary culture.

1. Although Leininger’s theory is comprehensive to say the least, my biggest concern is that the theory cannot be adapted quickly enough to accommodate changes that a single culture itself may undertake.

1. This becomes an even larger problem when we consider that we must account for numerous intersecting cultural influences. I understand that such is the nature of the theory, but I further argue that its implications are far different from when it was devised.

1. While this framework has been excellent for establishing some critical nursing precepts for the culturally diverse society we live in now, the origins of the theory were based in a time where cultural growth and identification was not subject to so many factors like media, and certainly not on such a wide scale.

1. Now, as culture becomes more and more ambiguous, the transcultural theory will likely have a harder time determining exactly what cultures need to be transcended.

1. American culture has different health implications than Latino culture, but what about Latin American culture?

1. How do we approach when someone’s beliefs indicate that they subscribe to one culture, but their behaviors reflect the values of another?

1. Then, how do we apply that approach on a wider scale, in the face of an increasingly ambiguous yet common cultural identity?

1. By focusing on the commonalities of the humans within the culture, and their specific humanity, rather than the differences in their cultures.

References

Leininger, M. (2008). Overview of Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality. Retrieved from http://www.madeleine-leininger.com/cc/overview.pdf

Sitzman, K., & Eichelberger, L. W. (2015). Understanding the Work of Nurse Theorists. United States: Jones and Bartlett Publishers. Retrieved from http://nursing.jbpub.com/sitzman/ch15pdf.pdf