Journal of Professional Nursing

False Assumptions, Ethnocentrism and Cultural Imposition … Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care and its Place in Aotearoa 

Mary Smith, RGON, BN, Nurse Consultant Medical Services, Lakeland Health, Rotorua 

Reference:  Smith, M. (1997). False Assumptions, Ethnocentrism and Cultural Imposition … Madeleine Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care and its Place in Aotearoa. Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, 12(1), 13-16.

Abstract:

Article
It is ironic that Madeleine Leininger, the founder of Transcultural Nursing which was developed to “promote and protect the clients of diverse cultural groups” (Leininger 1996, p.13) was apparently not well informed about the Aotearoa/New Zealand context when she made her response to the Cooney article in Nursing Praxis in New Zealand, Vol. 11 NO. 2.  It seems that Leininger, despite having written “whenever cultural imposition or negative ethnocentrism occur … one will find culturally unsafe practices and outcomes”, (Leininger, 1996b, p.13) is prepared to respond to a New Zealand author without an indepth knowledge of the New Zealand scene.  It is not surprising therefore, that her response contains inaccuracies and misconceptions. 

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