Nursing Theorist Paper

The profession of nursing is based not only on the rules of science, but also on the basic human relations between patient and nurse. From interpersonal relations to caring, to Florence Nightingale's theory of environment, many nursing theorists played a vital role in the development of nursing through these aspects. In this paper, I am going to focus on one theorist, whom I believe took that nurse-patient relationship to another level, in order to provide the best care possible, Madeleine Leininger. I will talk about her background, the theory of culture care diversity and universality, and how it is used today in nursing.

Dr. Madeleine Leininger had many accomplishments over her lifetime. As the founder of the discipline of transcultural nursing, the ethnonursing qualitative research methodology, the Council on Nursing and Anthropology with the American Anthropological Association/Society for Applied Anthropology, the Transcultural Nursing Society, and the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, Leininger's successful career spanned over 60 years (Ray, 2012, p. 6). She was born on July 13, 1925 in Sutton, Nebraska to a large family of four brothers and sisters within a farming community. Her teaching career started early when she obtained her elementary school teaching certificate in 1942 and taught the third grade (Ray, 2012, p. 6). Although this could be the beginning of her interests, it wasn't fully satisfying her desire. She began her nursing career at St. Anthony Hospital, School of Nursing in Denver, Colorado during World War II while also being a part of the US Army Nurse Cadet Corps (Ray, 2012, p. 6). She went on to receive her BSN in biological science and later her MSN in psychiatric nursing. While working as a child guidance nurse in the mid 1950's, Madeleine began to observe that children of diverse cultural backgrounds responded differently to care and psychiatric treatments (Ray, 2012, p. 6). From there, she began to study the interrelationship...