Theoretical Foundations of Nursing First Half

¶ … diverse population nurses must attend to, the concept of 'transcultural' nursing is important to understand. Instead of viewing health as a universal concept, transcultural nursing attempts to understand the conceptual building blocks of the nursing profession as cultural products that are socially-constructed. It strives to understand the similarities and differences between different health attitudes and practices (Leininger 1991). First developed by Madeline Leininger, transcultural nursing is founded upon the idea that the "health care providers need to be flexible in the design of programs, policies, and services to meet the needs and concerns of the culturally diverse population, groups that are likely to be encountered" (Transcultural nursing, 2012, Current Nursing).

Nurses must be culturally astute and adapt their practices to patient's cultural needs as well as to physical needs. This concept has been somewhat controversial within the nursing profession given that Western medicine's emphasis on preserving life and optimizing treatment may come in conflict with the patient's beliefs. The book The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down by Ann Faidman chronicles the tragic miscommunication between a Hmong immigrant family that had a daughter prone to seizures and the doctors that treated her. The family understood the condition as 'spells' with a spiritual dimension, the doctors saw the girl's epilepsy as an illness. The inability of the treatment team to fully comprehend the worldview of the family led to the child's inability to be treated by the physicians in an effective manner.