Dedication
Madeleine Leininger
Akram Omeri
Adjunct Associate Professor, School of Nursing, College of Health and Science, University of Western Sydney, Parramatta NSW
PP: ii - iii
Article Text
This special issue of Contemporary Nurse, Advances in Contemporary Transcultural Nursing, is dedicated to the founder of Transcultural Nursing and Leader of Human Care Research
MADELEINE M. LEININGER
PhD, LHD, DS, RN, CTN, FAAN, FRCNA
www.madeleine-leininger.com
'Transcultural nursing with a caring focus must become the dominant focus of all areas of nursing. It is the holistic and most complete and creative way to help people.'
(Leininger, 1981:5)
This issue of Contemporary Nurse is dedicated to the worldwide founder and global leader of the field of Transcultural Nursing, Madeleine Leininger (1967; 1970; 1978). An international scholar, Madeleine Leininger’s vision has guided nurses and other health personnel in the discovery of a new body of nursing knowledge - to provide culturally congruent and competent care practices across the world. Dr Leininger is a fellow and distinguished Living Legend of the American Academy of Nursing and the Emeritus Member of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing. She started the Transcultural Nursing Society, is the initiator and Editor of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing, and author/editor of 28 books and over 220 articles.
Madeleine Leininger has defined Transcultural Nursing as a legitimate and imperative field of study and practice – to provide culturally congruent, safe and therapeutic care that is meaningful to people from culturally diverse backgrounds. This evolution, with a focus on Culture Care and the development of research-based transcultural nursing knowledge, has provided a shift from the medical model of diseases, management of symptoms, and culturally biased professional diagnosis.
Transcultural nursing in Australasia began in the late 1950’s, when Dr Leininger developed her Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality based partly on her pioneering field study of the Gadsup of the Eastern Highlands of New Guinea. During her first trip to Australia in 1960, Leininger discovered that many immigrant and non-immigrant nurses were aware of transcultural nursing concepts. In visits through the 1970’s, she observed that Australian nurses were using her classical publications: The significance of culture in nursing (1967), Nursing and anthropology: Two worlds to blend (1970), and Transcultural nursing concepts, theories, research and practice (1978). Leininger has made 15 trips to Australia and has mentored many nurses since the 1960’s (Leininger, personal communications with Omeri, 1990–2003).
In 2000, during the 26th Annual Transcultural Nursing Research Conference on the Gold Coast, Dr Leininger was awarded the life Fellowship & Distinguished Visiting Scholar's Award, by the Royal College of Nursing, Australia – the first time such an award was presented to anyone outside Australia – in appreciation of her consultation with Australian nurses and her support in promoting collaboration in transcultural nursing education, research and practice. She was recently awarded the Lifetime Achievement Award from the International Institute for Qualitative Methodology, for her pioneering work to bring qualitative methods into the mainstream of research.
Dedication by Contemporary Nurse of this special issue to Madeleine Leininger, is an appreciation of her ongoing consultation and sharing of her vision in the discipline of transcultural nursing with nurses across the Asia Pacific.
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