The principles of the theory of expanding consciousness resulted in the appearance of the ideas referring to multicultural issues in healthcare. Madeleine M. Leininger’s culture care theory (CCT) addresses the question of nursing in multicultural societies and states that nurses should consider the cultural background of patients (Wehbe-Alamah, 2014). Thus, CCT allows establishing friendly and conscious relationships with patients in the multicultural context of the present healthcare society.
Relevant education programs are needed to implement CCT in practice. It has been shown that the medical students who had CCT principles included in the curriculum demonstrated higher transcultural self-efficacy (Singleton, 2017). In other words, those students were ready to work with people from different cultural backgrounds because they were confident in their competence. Therefore, the CCT application demands transformations in the system of nursing education.
Most of the assessment tools for diagnostics are created for a limited number of countries, and they cannot be directly applied to a different society. The principles of cultural awareness in nursing practice have been shown to improve diagnostic effectiveness successfully (Lillie et al., 2020). Therefore, the cultural adaptation of tests is needed to provide adequate therapy. If nurses have valid tests for each cultural background, they will be able to perform the testing faster and spend their time communicating with patients.
Furthermore, patients are exposed to a tolerant environment when CCT is implemented into medical practice. According to Lillie et al. (2020), CCT facilitates a gentler relationship between nurses and patients. Interaction of patients and nurses becomes confiding, which supports an optimal mental state of both parties. Thus, using CCT principles, a nurse can predict how they should adjust the treatment specifically for individual patients’ needs.
References
Lillie, K. M., Dirks, L. G., Curtis, J. R., Candrian, C., Kutner, J. S., & Shaw, J. L. (2020). Culturally adapting an advance care planning communication intervention with American Indian and Alaska native people in primary care. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 31(2), 178–187.
Singleton, J. K. (2017). An enhanced cultural competence curriculum and changes in transcultural self-efficacy in doctor of nursing practice students. Journal of Transcultural Nursing, 28(5), 516–522.
Wehbe-Alamah, H. (2014). Madeleine Leininger’s theory of culture care diversity and universality. In M. Smith, & M. Parker (Eds.), Nursing theories and nursing practice (4nd ed., pp. 280-300). Philadelphia, PA: F. A. Davis.