Preface

The field of transcultural nursing has seen many major advances and breakthroughs since the publication of the third edition of this text in 2002. The purpose of the fourth edition of this book is to present readers with new transcultural nursing theoretical conceptualizations, discoveries, and applications as well as future directions for the discipline of transcultural nursing. The goal of this new edition is to promote the provision of culturally congruent transcultural health care for individuals, families, groups, communities, and organizations from diverse cultures locally, nationally, and globally. Since the first and second editions of this book were authored by Dr. Madeleine Leininger in 1978 and 1995, and the third edition co-authored with Dr. Marilyn McFarland in 2002, many transcultural nursing developments have inspired this fourth edition.

Six decades after Dr. Leininger pioneered the discipline of transcultural nursing, followed by later contributions from other transcultural nursing scholars, nursing and health care have been transformed. Much progress has been made in developing the body of transcultural nursing knowledge with concepts, principles, and research findings to guide nurses and other health care providers in caring for culturally diverse and similar people and populations around the world. Transcultural nursing theories supported by research findings are now being used to guide translational science practice innovation projects. These implementation projects introduce evidence-based care practices to nurses and others to prepare them to provide culturally congruent, sensitive, and meaningful care.

This fourth edition has three sections and 25 new chapters. In the first section, two chapters discuss the importance and historical evolution of transcultural nursing and the development of new transcultural nursing care concepts, principles, guidelines, and policies. In addition, major features and updates to the Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality, Ethnonursing Research Method, Sunrise Enabler, and other enablers are presented. The trailblazing influences of the Culture Care Theory on the development of other transcultural nursing theories and models are also discussed. Further, covered in this book is new content on the globalization of transcultural health care; cultural assessments and transcultural communications; generic and professional health care practices; transcultural food functions, beliefs, and practices; as well as the biocultural basis for transcultural nursing including genetic and genomic influences on care and health.

In the second section, special transcultural topics are presented including culturally congruent approaches for mental health care, the integration of culturally based care and caring into nursing practices, culturally congruent care for Haitians, and the relevance of Ayurvedic medicine in transcultural care practices. Also, an updated presentation of transcultural nursing and health care in Taiwan is shared; the role of the transcultural nurse in the global environment is explicated; and the application of the Culture Care Theory for transcultural conflict resolution for nurse administrators is described.

The third section focuses on research and practice. It presents the use of the Culture Care Theory in translational science through the process of engagement during cultural immersion experiences; culturally competent research practice about malaria care with the Maasai in Kenya is richly explicated; and it describes the lived experiences of urban-dwelling African-American women receiving transcultural care from nurse practitioners. Culture care research findings are also presented about the native Yupit people of southwest Alaska, the culture care needs of Appalachian mothers experiencing homelessness, Mexican-American women during the postpartum experience, and the culture care of Syrian Muslims in the midwestern United States.

This fourth edition expands previous transcultural nursing knowledge from prior editions to the present. The book reflects the work of experts and scholars in the discipline of transcultural nursing. Their extensive experiences and actively sustained leadership render this book a substantive, authoritative, and credible contribution to transcultural nursing. The discipline of transcultural nursing remains a global imperative for study and practice for nurses and other health care providers.

Dr. Leininger passed the torch to us for the continued development of the Culture Care Theory and related contributions to the discipline of transcultural nursing. Through this book and other publications, we hope that we are successfully fulfilling her fervent wish that the cultural needs of people in the world will be met by nurses prepared in transcultural nursing.