topic1

Definition, Nature and History of Transcultural Nursing

• Transcultural nursing is a humanistic and scientific area of nursing study and practice that focuses on how patterns of behavior in health, illness, and caring are influenced by the values and beliefs of specific cultural groups. It applies this knowledge in the planning and provision of culturally appropriate care.
• The goal of Transcultural Nursing (TCN) is to develop a scientific and humanistic body of knowledge in order to provide culture-specific and culture-universal nursing care practices for individuals, families, groups, communities, and institutions of similar and diverse cultures.
• TCN (NATURE): One of the central concepts that anthropologists study is culture. Culture is a complicated, multifaceted concept with numerous definitions. The earliest recorded definition comes from the 19th-century British anthropologist Edward Tylor who defines culture as the complex whole that includes knowledge, beliefs, art, morals, law, customs, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by members of a society (
  Tylor, \ 1871\).
• Influenced by formal anthropology training, Leininger defines culture as the “learned, shared, and transmitted values, beliefs, norms, and lifeways of a particular group of people that guide thinking, decisions, and actions in a patterned way” (
  Meade, \ 1937\)) and used the term transcultural nursing (TCN) to describe the blending of nursing and anthropology into an area of specialization within nursing. TCN focuses on people’s culturally based beliefs, attitudes, values, behaviors, and practices related to health, illness, healing, and human caring (Leininger, 1991, 1995; Leininger & McFarland, 2002, 2006).
• Short History of TCN:
  • Foundations laid in the mid-1950s$. Peplau first mentioned in$1950 that cultures were an important variable affecting mental health.
  • In 1962, King stated that psychopathological behaviors differ from culture to culture.
  • In 1969, the International Council of Nursing (ICN) began using cultural content in nursing.
  • The Transcultural Nursing Society (TCNS) was established in 1974 to train nurses in this area.
  • Madeleine Leininger (July 13, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was an internationally known educator, author, theorist, administrator, researcher, consultant, public speaker, and the developer of the concept of transcultural nursing that has greatly impacted how to deal with patients of different cultures and cultural backgrounds.

Importance of Transcultural Nursing

• Leininger cites eight factors that influenced the establishment of TCN as a framework for addressing 20th-century societal and health care challenges, many of which remain relevant today:
  1. A marked increase in the migration of people within and between countries worldwide.
  2. A rise in multicultural identities, with people expecting their cultural beliefs, values, and ways of life to be understood and respected by nurses and other health care providers.
  3. An increase in health care providers’ and patients’ use of technologies that connect people globally and simultaneously, which may conflict with some cultural values, beliefs, and practices.
  4. Global cultural conflicts, clashes, and violence that impact health care as more cultures interact with one another.
  5. An increase in the number of people traveling and working in different parts of the world.
  6. An increase in legal actions resulting from cultural conflict, negligence, ignorance, and imposition of health care practices.
  7. A rise in awareness of gender issues, with growing demands on health care systems to meet the gender- and age-specific needs of men, women, and children.
  8. A$$n increased demand for community- and culturally based health care services in diverse environmental contexts.

Key Concepts and Principles in TCN

1. HUMAN CARE AS ESSENCE IN NURSING

• Human Caring is part of the human condition and a way of Being Human.
• Caring is found throughout time; the