Leininger’s Theory Summary Paper

Question :

Write a one to two-page summary on key assumptions of Leininger Culture Care theory and summarize the implications of this theory for your chosen advanced nursing role. ( First write about Leininger Theory, then write about its implication to Family Nurse Practitioner or Advanced Practice Registed Nurse).

Leininger Theory Summary Paper

Answer :

Leininger’s Theory Summary Paper 

In this paper, assumptions associated with Leininger’s Culture Care theory has been summarized. Further, the implications of the theory for the chosen advanced nursing role has been provided as well.

Summary on key assumptions

Leininger has given special attention to transcultural nursing. Transcultural caring is concerned with considering the concept of culture in nursing. It focuses on comparative and global cultural caring in health and nursing. Leininger is a pioneer in this area of study. Her model has several assumptions that are worth understanding. Her assumptions state that care should be at the core of all nursing activities. Caring has been considered important for healing and health of individuals, even when facing death. Culture care helps nurses in not only understanding multicultural patients, but to direct their nursing practices accordingly for everyone’s benefit. Nursing transcends any physical boundary and is a humanistic approach to service all humans on earth. 

Caring is vital to ensure that patients are cured. Both elements are interconnected. There can be differences in knowledge, practices, and professional care among various cultures. In order to ensure that the nurses take care of patients from different cultures, nurses have to learn their patterns or expressions, and community values. Further, difference in culture care is likely to exist worldwide among nurses and patients. However, there is no doubt that these differences can be minimized by improving the understandability. As per Leininger’s assumptions, if [patients find that the nursing care they are getting is not in line with their beliefs and values, then the patients are likely to show conflict and non compliance. Leininger has focused on qualitative paradigm rather than conventional quantitative paradigms. She asserts that qualitative paradigm is comparatively better useful in understanding various dimensions of human care ("Leininger's Culture Care Theory", 2020). 

Summarizing the implications

This theory has greater implication to Family Nurse Practitioner or Advanced Practice Registered Nurse. In accordance with Leininger’s assumption, it is important that the nurses should have the ability to understand the transcultural patients. Nurses should show care. Trust and care is vital for successful curing of patients. Nurses who do not have understanding of these aspects are likely to face challenges in handling patients from different cultures properly. In fact, nurses may end up recommending things that may not seem culturally appropriate for the patients (McFarland & Wehbe-Alamah, 2014). This may lead to rejection of recommendation. Here, it is possible that the nurse may end up forcing patients to accept recommendation arguing it as the only way out. However, a nurse with multicultural orientation may try to understand why the patients are rejecting the recommendation and try to devise a middle path where the patient can be understood and made understood about the need to take recommended action. 

Mutual understanding can only come if the effort is made by nurses to understand the patients. And this can come only through increased observation and understanding of patients from other cultures. Leininger suggests that the nurses should have strong listening skills (Leininger, 2011). They should not only talk, but listen to what is being said by patients. Listening carefully greatly aid in understanding the patients from any culture. Further, it can be said that the way the world is changing and people of different cultures can be found in any part of the world, it has become necessary that nurses build up their understanding of multicultural patients.

Conclusions

Overall it can be said that care and ability to understand patients from different cultures is important for the nurses to ensure that they are able to provide better care. Leininger has stressed that if nurses are not able to understand the cultural preferences and orientation of the patients, then it would be difficult to administer any suggestions as it may not be accepted by the patients of different culture.

References

Leininger's Culture Care Theory. (2020). Retrieved 7 March 2020, from https://nursing-theory.org/theories-and-models/leininger-culture-care-theory.php

Leininger, M. M. (2011). The theory of culture care diversity and universality. New York.

McFarland, M. R., & Wehbe-Alamah, H. B. (2014). Leininger's culture care diversity and universality. Jones & Bartlett Learning.