MADELEINE LEININGER

Cultural Care Diversity and Universality

Theory Premises
Care is essential for human growth, well being, and survival and
to face death and disabilities.
There are diverse and universal forms, expressions, patterns, and
processes of human care that exist transculturally.
Care is the essence of nursing and the distinct, dominant and
unifying feature of nursing.
Culture care is the broadest means to know, explain, account for
and predict nursing care phenomena and to guide nursing care
practices.
Theory Premises
Knowledge of meanings and practices derived from world views, social
structure factors, cultural values, environmental context, and language uses
are essential to guide nursing decisions and actions in providing cultural
congruent care.
Cultures have folk and professional care values, beliefs, and practices that
influence cultural care practices in Western and non-Western cultures.
Care is essential to curing; however, there can be no curing without caring,
but there can be caring without curing.
Nursing is a transcultural phenomenon requiring knowledge of different
cultures to provide care that is congruent with the client lifeways, social
structure, and environmental context.
Commonly Used Terms
Culture: The learned, shared, and transmitted values, beliefs,
norms, and life practices of a particular group that guides
thinking, decisions, and actions in patterned ways.
Caring: Actions directed toward assisting, supporting, or enabling
behavior toward or for another individual (or group) with evident
or anticipated needs to ameliorate or improve a human
condition or lifeway.
Commonly Used Terms
Cultural Care Diversity: The variety of meanings, patterns, values,
or symbols of care that are culturally derived by humans for their
well-being or to improve a human condition or lifeway or to face
death.
Cultural Care Universality: Common, similar, or uniform meanings,
patterns, values, or symbols of care that are culturally derived by
humans for their well-being or to improve a human condition or
lifeway or to face death.
Commonly Used Terms
Social Structure: The dynamic nature of interrelated structural or
organizational factors of a particular culture (or society) and how
these factors function to give meaning and structural order,
including religious, kinship, political, economic, educational,
technological, and cultural factors.
Commonly Used Terms
Health: A state of well-being that is culturally defined, valued,
and practiced and which reflects the ability of individuals (or
groups) to perform their daily role activities in a culturally
satisfactory way.
Commonly Used Terms
Cultural care preservation or maintenance: Those assistive,
supportive, or enabling professional actions and decisions that
help clients of a particular culture to preserve or maintain a state
of health or to recover from illness and to face death.
Commonly Used Terms
Cultural care accommodation or negotiation: Those assistive,
supporting, or enabling professional actions and decisions that
help clients of a particular culture to adapt to or negotiate for a
beneficial or satisfying health status or to face death.
Commonly Used Terms
Cultural care repatterning or restructuring: Those assistive,
supportive, or enabling professional actions or decisions that help
clients change their lifeways for new or different patterns that are
culturally meaningful and satisfying or that support beneficial and
healthy life patterns.
References
Leininger, M. (1988). Leiningers theory of nursing: Cultural Care Diversity and
Universality. Nursing Science Quarterly, 1(4), 152-160.
doi:10.1177/0894318488000100408
McEwen, M. & Wills, E. (2014). Theoretical basis for nursing. 4th ed. Philadelphia, PA:
Wolters Kluwer Health.