MADELEINE LEININGER: BIOGRAPHY AND THEORY - CULTURE VOCABULARY - 2025

Madeleine M. Leininger (1925-2012) was an American nurse and anthropologist who authored so-called cross-cultural nursing. Born in Nebraska, she became the first professional nurse to earn a Ph.D. in anthropology, bringing the two disciplines together in her work.

After obtaining a BS in Biological Sciences, she became a member of the nursing staff at a hospital in Omaha. Shortly after, she studied psychiatric nursing, pioneering the establishment of a clinical specialty program in child psychiatric nursing.

Source: Juda712, from Wikimedia Commons

Her travels around the world, during which she studied various cultures and ethnicities, gave her the basis to develop her best-known theory: cross-cultural nursing. This, broadly speaking, affirms that patients themselves can guide their nurses on what care is most appropriate for them depending on their culture.

The application of this theory is carried out following the so-called Model of the Rising Sun. This defines people as inseparable individuals from their cultural heritage and social structure. It is something that, according to the author, should be taken into account when providing health care.

Biography

Madeleine M. Leininger was born in Sutton, Nebraska (USA) on July 13, 1925. After finishing her high school studies, she enrolled in the St. Anthony School of Nursing in Denver.

When she graduated, she began working as a nurse in the Cadet Corps, although she continued her training in that same professional field. In 1950, she obtained a degree in Biological Sciences from Kansas, also studying philosophy and humanism.

First jobs in nursing

Her subsequent career assignments led her to serve as an instructor and head nurse in a medical-surgical unit at St. Joseph Hospital in Omaha.

There he opened a psychiatry unit, taking charge of its nursing service. Likewise, it collaborated in the development of study plans on this subject for the State University.

Infant Nursing

Interested in psychiatry, Leininger obtained an MSN in psychiatric nursing in 1954 from the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. This led her to Cincinnati, where she started the world's first specialized program in child psychiatric nursing.

It was during this assignment that Leininger began to notice that the cultural factors of the patients influenced the behavior and the effectiveness of the treatments, something that the health personnel did not take into account.

The nurse began to raise the need to change the approach, taking into account these cultural factors. However, at that time she did not find a positive response from her peers.

Anthropology and Nursing

In the absence of a response, Leininger began work on a doctoral thesis on social, cultural, and psychological anthropology.

During his research on the subject, he analyzed many different cultures and affirmed his belief in the use of anthropology applied to care.

Leininger not only dedicated himself to studying these cultures from a distance, but also undertook a trip to New Guinea to live with the Gadsu people for almost two years. In the villages he visited, he collected data for an ethnographic and ethno-nursing study.

These works were the basis of his theory of cultural care and of the cross-cultural method that would make it known throughout the world.

Cross-cultural nursing

Upon his return to the United States, Leininger continued his work. In 1966, at the University of Colorado, she offered the first course in cross-cultural nursing. Similarly, she became the director of the first scientific nursing program in her country.

In 1969, she was named Dean of Nursing at the University of Washington. In addition, she held the position of lecturer in anthropology. Her mandate was lowered, the Research Facilitation Office was founded, and several cross-cultural nursing courses were started.

It was also at this time that he created the Committee on Nursing and Anthropology (1968), a body that coordinated with the American Anthropological Association.

During the following decade, Leininger changed his workplace several times. In each new position, he promoted the development of anthropology-based nursing.

National Transcultural Nursing Society

As early as 1974, Leininger founded the National Society for Cross-cultural Nursing. Four years later, she was the creator of the National Care Research Conference, dedicated to training professionals interested in her theory.

Semi-retirement

In 1981 Leininger began working as a professor at Wayne State University in Detroit. There she taught nursing and anthropology classes until, in 1995, she retired from teaching.

This did not mean that he gave up the job entirely, as he continued to give lectures, courses and take care of the organizations he had created.

Death

Dr. Madeleine Leininger died on August 10, 2012 in Omaha, at the age of 87. Her theory has been recognized with different awards and today it is fully valid.

Theory

The theory formulated by Madeleine Leininger is based on the application of anthropology to health care.

Cross-cultural nursing was defined by the author herself as “the main area of ​​nursing that focuses on the comparative study and analysis of the different cultures and subcultures of the world with respect to the values ​​of care, expression and beliefs of health and disease, and the role model ”.

Theoretical basis

Leininger's intention when developing his theory was that the nurses' own care should be adapted to the cultural and social particularities of the patients. With this, he intended to improve the treatments or, where appropriate, give adequate treatment to those who were close to death.

In this way, cross-cultural nursing surpassed in its approaches the mere fact of applying formal nursing knowledge. Professionals had to have certain notions of anthropology and apply them to their task.

In his writings, he divided nursing into two large groups. The first, formed by the followers of cross-cultural nursing itself, in which professionals have received specific training to treat patients from different cultures.

The second group, on the contrary, would be that of intercultural nursing, without that training and that uses medical or applied anthropological concepts.

The cross-cultural nurse

For the author, a cross-cultural nurse should have received the regulated teachings on the discipline. In addition, she had to be able to apply the concepts of transculturality in the treatment of patients.

Theory of diversity and universality

In this part of his general theory, Leininger affirmed that individuals of different cultures can help professionals so that they offer them the most appropriate care for their beliefs and customs.

In this way, the theory aims for nurses to learn what the patient's world is like and to pay attention to their internal points of view, maintaining adequate ethics.

Ultimately, Leininger wanted the care provided to be consistent with the cultural beliefs of the patients. With this, he thought that the final result would improve and that patients would react better to the treatment received.

Rising Sun Model

The Model of the Rising Sun was developed by Leininger in 1970. In this, he tried to represent some essential elements of his theory. The Model should become an instrument for professionals to apply their teachings.

In the upper half of the circle (the sun), the components of social structure and cultural beliefs would be found. These inevitably influence the concept of the world of the individual, something that affects care and health.

In the central area of ​​the model are the nurses. When the two halves are joined, a whole sun is formed, representing the universe that nurses must take into account to value human care.

According to the theory, three types of nursing care can be established: presentation and maintenance of cultural care; adaptation and negotiation of such care; and restructuring of culture-based care.

References

1. Olivia Aguilar Guzmán, Miroslava Iliana Carrasco González, María Aurora García Piña, Araceli Saldivar Flores, Rosa María Ostiguín Meléndez. Madeleine Leininger: an analysis of its theoretical foundations. Recovered from magazines.unam.mx
2. Rohrbach-Viadas, Cecilia. Introduction to the theory of cultural nursing care of diversity and universality by Madeleine Leininger. Recovered from rua.ua.es
3. Espinosa de los Monteros, José. The founder of Transcultural Nursing passes away. Retrieved from index-f.com
4. Gil, Wayne. Madeleine M. Leininger - The Founder of Transcultural Nursing. Retrieved from nurseslabs.com
5. Hanink, Elizabeth. Madeleine Leininger, Nurse Anthropologist. Retrieved from workingnurse.com
6. Johnson, Jerry, Sutton Historical Society. Madeleine Leininger - A Great Woman with a Great Story. Retrieved from suttonhistoricalsociety.blogspot.com
7. Petiprin, Alice. Madeleine Leininger - Nursing Theorist. Retrieved from nursing-theory.org