Introduction

The transcultural part of any nursing concept is essential to focus on cultural differences. Following a
study that was conducted in Turkey, it is clear that patient care remains a tremendous problem in
terms of the services that are offered in Turkey. The contributing factor to these difficulties rises from
cultural differences. Sufficiency that is based on cultural factors holds the root to satisfactory
deliverance of health care services. This study was aimed at understanding the views, which the
students had in regard to the experiences, which they had with the patients while offering the medical
services. Transcultural aspects in the nursing sector were the main target of the researchers.

It was identified that placing transcultural nursing studies in the curriculum would help solve the
mounting problem in the health sector. This is because it will act as a guide to the nursing students in
all sectors of health care. Therefore, the solution to the issue was found to be based on education.
This is clearly defined and analyzed in Leininger theory.

Leininger was a nurse who acknowledged the significance of caring as a concept in nursing. During
her career as a nurse, she received recurrent statements of admiration from her patients, and this
prompted her to the focal point on heed as being an innermost nursing constituent. At first, Leininger
suggested that there was a blend between world of nursing and anthropology. This blend was
considered a vital approach in the nursing sector, as it was said to create culturally harmonious
nursing services. In her view, transcultural nursing care can be blended with healthcare delivery
cognizant performance sculpts. Some of the factors suggested that this blend included theology,
social work, and health administration among others. Leininger describes experiencing cultural shock
while operating in a child supervision habitat after realizing recurring patterns in an individual’s
behavior, which was based on culture. Lack of cultural expertise and care knowledge is what she
identified as the problem in linkage of nursing understanding with numerous variations that are
necessary for patient care and hold up conformity in healing and well-being. According to the
conducted study, it was made abundantly clear that the solution to the cultural differences in the
health sector can only be found through the education system. Once the blend that was suggested by
Leininger is achieved in the healthcare delivery, the developed model can help provide health experts
with the ability as well as ensuring availability of effective performance in a health cultural context.
These approaches were the genesis of constructed phenomenon, which is connected to nursing and
known as transcultural nursing.

Leininger referred to transcultural-nursing care as an area with substantive cram and performance,
which is aimed at proportional educational care. These forms of care include the following values,
attitude, and personality or group practices that are similar or diverse from cultures with a common
goal. This goal is culture-specific, and it helps face serious human conditions, such as illness or even
death, in meaningful ways basing on culture (Leininger, 1988). Leininger was motivated by the need
for nursing care among patients, and as a result, she was able to identify the need and importance of
this concept. This also made her put much effort in this area as a centralized nursing component.
Lack of cultural and knowledge deficiencies among the health administrators are the key link to the
lack of variations that are necessary for patient care. This deficiency leads to slowed healing and
compliance.

This theory was aimed at giving or outlining necessary measures that are in line with the individuals,
practices, and beliefs from cultural perspectives and values. She managed to compose the term
culturally incompatible. The cultural congruent forms the primary objectives of a transcultural nursing
care. This aspect is possible once some factors, which help in the understanding of the theory depth,
are included. Care is crucial, as people are able to give those in need anticipated aid and help them
improve their conditions. Culture is the other noteworthy aspect that involves transmitted values of
individuals and groups and is aimed at guiding them in the life patterns. Cultural care and diversity,
which are common in majority of cultures, are also crucial to address. The other critical factors fall
under nursing, social, and cultural structures, which are factors that are linked to religion, politics, as
well as economic factors in a cultural situation. People should be concerned with care preservations
that are based on culture and comprise the nursing procedures that enable people in a certain culture
use the cultural core values and retain values that have relations to health care concerns.

Transcultural nursing practices addresses diverse educational dynamics that have an effect on nurse-
client relationships. In respect to this focus on the feature of nursing, there was a need to develop a
theory to cram and clarify the products of this care. Therefore, Leininger suggested the “theory of
culture care: assortment together with universality and an aim of providing ethnically harmonious
holistic care”. This theory provides measures of care that are in agreement with individuals’ or groups’
cultural beliefs, values, and practices. She formulated harmonious care that acts as the basis of
transcultural nurture care (Leininger, 1988).

She pointed out that there is a likelihood of culturally harmonious care whenever it occurs in
subsequent nurse-client relationship. The nurse must have a creative design and a different care
style for the clients’ well-being and health. This form of mode demands both generic as well as
professional knowledge, together with ways that diversify thoughts into nursing caring actions and
objectives. Knowledge in giving care and skill is often an important pattern for the clients. Therefore,
all modalities need co-participation of the nurse and clients (consumers) in order to invent a plan, put
it into practice, and analyze each mode of a nursing care that is based on culture. Stimulation among
nurses is caused by these modes with an aim of designing nursing actions through knowledge and
ways that are relevant to a certain culture. This is again based on ways that provide consequential
and fulfilling full care to separate individuals and groups among others (Leininger & McFarland,
2002).

The paper aims at examining how the application of Leininger theory can improve healthy, satisfying,
and culturally based nursing care to enhance the well-being of culturally diverse geriatric patients with
different values and lifestyles.

Theory/Rationale

In the application of the theory in enhancing the well-being of culturally diverse geriatric patients,
emphasis is laid on culture competence. In nursing, this norm refers to the ability of the nurse to take
into account people’s beliefs, needs, and behaviors in the provision of efficient health care. This is a
display of a process rather than a skill. Camphina Bacote views cultural competence as a continued
process and emphasizes the health care providers who are culturally competent. To acquire this
status, health professionals must start being aware of their own attitudes, practices, and beliefs while
coming into contact with different cultural views of diverse patients who do not share their opinions
and views. Camphina Bacote further mentions cultural consciousness, skills, encounters, knowledge,
and desire as something that constitutes cultural competence (Campinha, 2011).

The process of self-evaluation of one’s own biases in regard to other cultures, deep exploration of
one’s culture, and proficient setting is referred to as cultural awareness. Similarly, it also documented
race factor as involved in the deliverance of healthcare. Cultural knowledge refers to the process that
seeks professionals and acquires relevant information. This information is based on worldviews in
relevance to different educational and ethnic groups together with biological variations. It is clear that
those diseases are connected to health situation and drug variations metabolism, which is found
within these ethnic groups (bicultural ecology). Therefore, a cultural skill refers to that capability of
assessing cultural conduct with an aim of collecting cultural data that are relevant in respect to
accurate problem presentation in the conduction process, which is culturally-based on physical
assessment (Campinha, 2011).

The healthcare professionals are encouraged to employ cultural connections and several encounters
through cultural encounters, unlike client backgrounds. This would help in averting stereotyping and
modifying existing beliefs regarding certain educational clusters. The healthcare experts are
motivated to fetch cultural awareness, cultural knowledge, cultural skills, and such search of
educational encounters is referred to as cultural desire. Cultural yearning is religious and pivotal in
the assembly of cultural proficiency that absents the energy furnish and establishment for one’s
expedition towards educational capability. Consequently, cultural capability is also artistic
competence (Campinha, 2011). For example, a state of affairs may emerge when a request is made
to nurse to take care of a Hindu patient. This patient may have support or pious beliefs, which are in
direct distinction to nurse’s beliefs. In such a case, commitment is the process where desire that is
based on culture requires the nurse’s convenience to care for patients. It is clear that even in the
existence of natural intuition, crossing point and capability gives the meaning of cultural ability. This
definition perceives it as the process in which the nurse strives to take care of patient irrespective of
culture or beliefs (Campinha, 2002).

The other model of culture competence in applying Leininger theory focuses on twelve domains of
culture and concepts. These concepts are underlined as follows:

Overview or heritage, which encompasses genesis, habitation, scenery, economics, political affairs,
education, and profession;

Communication, which takes into account overriding language, dialects, occasion, names, handle,
facial languages, verbal communication, spatial practices, volume and tone, and even eye contact;

Family chores and society, taking into account the household head with different gender roles, child-
upbringing practices, priorities, developmental task, social status of the old and their lifestyle;

Workforce, which regards features such as self-sufficiency, acculturation, absorption, and language
barrier;

Bicultural ecology like birth variations, color of the skin, inheritance, genetics, economics;

High-risk behaviors such as tobacco, alcohol, and frivolous drugs, corporal activity, and safety;

Nutrition, which includes food means, universal foods, rituals, confines, health promotion;
Pregnancy and child-upbringing practices;

Death rituals, including demise rituals, grief;

and theology (Maier - Lorentz, 2008). Spirituality: spiritual process, prayers, life meanings, individual
based strength,

Health care practices hub on wellbeing, traditional methods, radical religious way of life, health
accountability, transplantation, remedy, self medical observations, and intellectual physical condition
as well as drawbacks (Akin, Ayaz, & Bilgili, 2010).

This model has an extensive significance for healthcare experts in diversified environmental setup.
Health care experts who can appraise, plan, and intercede in a skilled manner are anthropologists as
well as social workers. The use of the model in a built-in nursing curriculum can conduct the
improvement of evaluation tools, scheduling mechanisms, and individual interventions. The entire
staff of health care professional, for instance nurses, therapists, nutritionists among others, proposed
it for use. This has led to higher chances of improving health of a person, family, or society under
their care (Leininger, 1988).

It is essential to note the following theory concepts. Though the main focus of the theory is put on the
effectiveness in the provision of care, the patient is also a crucial factor. That incorporates patients’
experiences as crucial factors that help in defining the life ways of a person. Once the ethohistory of a
patient is known, it is easy to take medical care for him or her. This cab addressed on certain cultural
context over a short or diversified period. For example, a person from a cultural background whose
tribe believes only in traditional medicine and have little or no trust in medical professions may require
a nurse who great experience in caring in order to initiate medical attention to the patient (Halloran,
2009).

Other relevant concepts to which the theory is applicable is not only the nurse-client connection but
also family care society, group’s instructions, and cultures. The most beneficial is to have the
application of the theory to a situation where a nurse is accommodated in a group of peacekeeping
group. This is a key area, as there are cases of cultural division together with religious divisions. It
would be of greatest significance if the nurse was capable of offering and addressing these
differences and offer care consequently (Halloran, 2009)

Conclusion

Nurses who understand and value the norms of culturally competent care are capable of effecting
positive changes in healthcare programs. This is because client’s beliefs and values are fully thought
over and skillfully integrated into nursing care of selected cultures. Sharing a cultural personality
requires understanding of transcultural nursing ideas and principles besides awareness of up to date
research findings. Culturally capable nursing care can only take place when client plans. The core
nursing is based in caring. Therefore, nursing guidelines that help a nurse be culturally competent
make available most favorable holistic and culturally founded care. Holistic accommodating care to all
patients gives sheer contentment and other numerous rewards to individuals who can provide it.
Nowadays, nurses face unparalleled cultural multiplicity that is acquainted with quantities of
technologies. The nursing and wide-ranging science knowledge is meaningful in the cultural context,
as it also affects their operations. Continual advancement and expansion of modern aid enable
clients take good care of themselves and others. Supportive environment ensures the provision of
optimal holistic and culturally based care.