The University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Nursing and Nebraska
Health System will host Madeleine Leininger, Ph.D., as its visiting nurse
scholar, Nov. 15, 16 and 17. Dr. Leininger is the founder and international
leader of transcultural nursing, the study and practice of providing care
for people of diverse cultures.
Dr. Leininger will make presentations on transcultural nursing and its
importance in health professions. She will address members of the health
care community, as well as UNMC faculty and hospital staff at NHS.
A nurse and anthropologist, Dr. Leininger and her colleagues have studied
87 cultures worldwide and established transcultural nursing courses worldwide.
She also serves as a lecturer and consultant.
Transcultural nursing is when nurses use their most creative, compassionate
knowledge and skills to serve people of diverse and similar cultures,
Dr. Leininger said. If we dont provide health care that is sensitive
to the patients culture, we can expect our services may be rejected, avoided,
or even threaten the patients life.
Dr. Leininger said there has been a marked increase in Nebraska and
in the region of immigrants and refugees, including Kosovars, Macedonians,
Vietnamese, Samalis, Sudanese, Northern Russian and Eastern Europeans.
There are many cultures already in the rural and urban communities in
Nebraska that need to be understood and cared for such as Mexican-Americans,
African-Americans, Philippine-Americans and others. These are realities
of our growing multicultural community.
The purpose of the visit is to highlight the scholarly work of a nurse
scientist who is having an impact on health professions curricula and health
care practices,” said Janice Rustia, Ph.D., associate professor of nursing,
UNMC College of Nursing. “We are honored to have Dr. Leininger as our visiting
scholar. She is held in high esteem by people around the world.
Her presentation schedule is as follows: Nov. 15, 1:30 to 3:30 (CST),
Transcultural Nursing: Importance, Theory and Research, UNMC College
of Nursing Cooper Auditorium, room 1010, and broadcast live to nursing
divisions in Lincoln, Kearney and Scottsbluff; Nov. 17, noon to 1 p.m.
(EST), Providing Culturally Competent Care, Eppley Science Hall Amphitheater.
Dr. Leininger, 74, a native of Sutton, Neb., began her career in the
1960s after living and working two years in the eastern highlands of New
Guinea.
I learned many of the things I did were inappropriate and I came back
to the states thinking, How are we going to learn how to work in these
cultures? Dr. Leininger said. I used to start with the physical and
psychological aspect of care, but soon learned it was the cultural values,
beliefs and practices that were most important to provide quality care.
Theres more to human beings than disease.
Dr. Leininger said the challenge is to provide education on these issues
so they can be integrated into health education, research and practice
by the year 2020, and hopefully before. The increasing influence of different
cultures wont tolerate our angolcized culture.
Dr. Leininger, professor emeritus at the Wayne State University College
of Nursing in Detroit, has served as dean and professor of nursing at the
University of Washington and University of Utah. She is an emeritus member
of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, and founding member
of Transcultural Nursing and Human Care Theory and Research and the International
Transcultural Nursing Society. She is the author of 27 books, has published
more than 200 articles and given more than 1,100 lectures worldwide.
In 1998, she was honored with the Living Legend award by the American
Academy of Nursing. One of the academys top honors, the award recognizes
the contributions she has made to the nursing profession and to society,
in particular, as the founder of transcultural nursing.
The UNMC College of Nursing is the largest nursing school in the state
with a total of more than 700 students at its Omaha, Lincoln, Kearney and
Scottsbluff campuses. It is the only nursing school in the state to offer
undergraduate, master’s and doctoral degrees.
Nebraska Health System (NHS) is the partnership of Clarkson Hospital,
the first hospital in Nebraska, and University Hospital, the primary teaching
facility for UNMC. NHS operates 23 clinics and health care centers in Omaha,
Plattsmouth, Gretna and Auburn in Nebraska; Council Bluffs and Shenandoah
in Iowa. In addition, NHS physicians operate more than 350 outpatient clinics
in 50 communities in four states. NHS provides access to tertiary and primary
care including world-class specialized treatment such as solid organ transplantation,
burn care, wound care, geriatrics, bone marrow (stem cell) transplantation
and other cancer treatments. The combined hospital is an 835-bed facility
and serves approximately 25 percent of the Omaha-area market share.
UNMC is the only public academic health science center in the state.
Through its commitment to research, education, outreach and patient care,
UNMC has established itself as one of the country’s leading centers for
cancer research and treatment and solid organ transplantation. More than
$31 million in research grants and contracts were awarded to UNMC scientists
during the past fiscal year. In addition, UNMC’s educational programs are
responsible for training more health professionals practicing in Nebraska
than any other institution.