MADELAINE M LEININGER AND TRANSCULTURAL NURSING

Madelaine M Leininger and Transcultural Nursing

Madelaine M Leininger and Transcultural Nursing

Madeline Leininger was a pioneer nurse anthropologist. Appointed dean of the University of Washington, School of Nursing in 1969, she remained in that position until 1974. Her appointment followed a trip to New Guinea in the 1960's that opened her eyes to the need for nurses to understand their patients' culture and background in order to provide care. She is considered by some to be the "Margaret Mead of nursing" and is recognized worldwide as the founder of transcultural nursing, a program that she created at the School in 1974. She has written or edited 27 books and founded the Journal of Transcultural Nursing to support the research of the Transcultural Nursing Society, which she started in 1974.

Culture is a much-used word, and there is very little focus on the underlying concept to nursing. Without a sound relationship between culture and care, care could easily be fragmented by compartmentalizing areas of difference, such as dress, religion and food, without trying to understand how these areas dovetail into each other to form an integrated and meaningful whole. Culture comprises the system of shared ideas, rules and meanings that inform us how to view the world, and tell us how to act. Culture as a concept relating to mankind has been defined and redefined. Tyler 1871 cited by Leininger (1978 p491) defines it as: '...a complex whole, which includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, laws, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.'

Holman (2001) refers to the cultural 'lens' of society, a perception of the world or lens through which we view life. The different assertions remind us that the term can be applied in several ways to identify, for example, the ...