Madeleine Leininger

Madeleine Leininger (July 13, 1925 – August 10, 2012) was a nursing theorist, nursing professor and developer of the concept of transcultural nursing. First published in 1961, her contributions to nursing theory involve the discussion of what it is to care.

Leininger was born on 13 July 1925. She earned a nursing diploma from St. Anthony's Hospital School of Nursing, followed by undergraduate degrees at Benedictine College and Creighton University. She received a Master of Science in Nursing at Catholic University of America. She later studied cultural and social anthropology at the University of Washington, earning a PhD in 1966. Leininger held at least three honorary doctoral degrees.

Dr. Leininger held faculty positions at the University of Cincinnati and the University of Colorado, followed by service as a nursing school dean at both the University of Washington and the University of Utah. She was Professor Emeritus of Nursing at Wayne State University and an adjunct faculty member at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha. Leininger died at her home in Omaha, Nebraska on 10 August 2012.

The cultural care theory aims to provide culturally congruent nursing care through "cognitively based assistive, supportive, facilitative, or enabling acts or decisions that are mostly tailor-made to fit with individual's, group's, or institution's cultural values, beliefs, and lifeways" (Leininger, M. M. (1995). Transcultural nursing: Concepts, theories, research & practices. New York: McGraw Hill, Inc.5, p. 75) This care is intended to fit with or have beneficial meaning and health outcomes for people of different or similar cultural backgrounds.

...
Wikipedia