New TCNS Chapter Blends Culture with Nursing Care

New Jersey Nurse, Jan/Feb 2004 by Steefel, Lorraine

Incorporating culture into nursing is

* A waste of time

* Impractical because of the existing innumerable cultures

* Not outcomes-based

In the 1950s, Madeline Leininger, RN, PhD, LHD, CTN, FAAN, heard these arguments and more. "There's no room in nursing for culture-based care," colleagues told her. "Let's focus on curing patients." Leininger turned a deaf ear to resistance. She blended culture with nursing to form a new nursing discipline-transcultural nursing.

Today more than ever, transcultural nursing and culturally competent care make sense, according to certified transcultural nurse Margaret Conrad, RN, MSN, MPA, at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (UMDNJ), Newark, NJ. "As the diversity explosion thrusts patients of many and varied cultures at nurses' doorsteps, nurses must accommodate cultures to provide good nursing care," she says.

Walk into an ED in New Jersey, and you'll hear at least one language other than English spoken. The myriad cultures in NJ alone demonstrate the need for culturally congruent care though it may seem impractical, perhaps impossible. Leininger encourages nurses to take heart. Rather than knowing about all cultures, she suggests that RNs focus on a few cultures in depth. She created the "Sunrise Enabler," a model that helps nurses initiate patient-nurse dialogue, ask pertinent questions, and suggest nursing modes that will facilitate culturally congruent care.

Conrad decided to help spread the word about transcultural nursing. This past February, along with other nurse members of the International Transcultural Nurses Society (TCNS) -Elizabeth Kleber, RN, MSN, CTN; Iluminada Jurado, RN, MSN, CNN, Connie Sobon-Sensor, RN, MSN, CTN; and I-Conrad petitioned the TCNS, headquartered in Livonia, MI, to form a local chapter.

The goal of the new TCNS Mid-Atlantic Chapter is to further the international society's mission-that of ensuring that the cultural-care needs of people are met worldwide. "The chapter's specific focus is on the culture-care needs of the people of New Jersey, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and Maryland," says Kleber-"a rewarding but challenging task."

"When people are ill, culture-based care provides comfort and security," says Jurado. "This has a positive effect on healing, and in the long run, saves nurses time."

On January 22, 2004, the Mid-Atlantic Chapter of the TCNS hosted its first Panel Discussion Dinner, "Cultural Competence in Clinical Practice: Caring for Clients of Hispanic, Jewish, and Asian-Indian Cultures," at University Behavioral Healthcare Education Center, Piscataway, NJ. Three RNs shared their cultures and related them to culture-based nursing care:

* Munira Wells, RN, MSN, CCRN, CPAN, clinical coordinator, Main PACU, Overlook Hospital, Summit-Asian-Indian Muslim;

* Ada Bliven, RN, Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital (RWJUH), New Brunswick-Hispanic; and

* Elliot Stetson, RN, RWJUH-Jewish.

CEUs will be given. For more information on joining the TCNS Mid-Atlantic Chapter, contact Margaret Conrad at conradmm@umdnj.edu.

by Lorraine Steefel, RN, MSN, CTN