Abstract
This year, we celebrate our 35th year of the Journal of Transcultural Nursing. As a remembrance, I have chosen Dr. Leininger’s first editorial for the journal to be re-printed in this issue. As you read this, you can see that her passion for “transcultural” nursing has not changed: “to serve as a critical need to scholars, researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners of the evolving field of transcultural nursing knowledge to improve nursing worldwide.” It encourages us to “promote humanistic care and health science perspectives.” It is a publication that should remind us all of where we started and how far we have come, developing the scientific integrity of not only culturally congruent health care but presenting quality research on implications of diversity, equity, and inclusion. I hope you enjoy this read as much as I did.
Editorial
It was in the early 1970’s that I foresaw the need for this Journal as nurses were so intensely interested to learn about the nature, meaning and use of research findings of different cultures. Nurses not only wanted to learn about different cultures, but the ideas and findings began to expand markedly and transform their ideas about nursing. Likewise, generators of a new body of knowledge were eager to share their ideas with other nursing colleagues in education and service settings. This new or different body of nursing knowledge needed to be transmitted to nurses worldwide. Hence, the Journal of Transcultural Nursing will serve a critical need to scholars, researchers, theoreticians, and practitioners of the evolving field of transcultural nursing knowledge to improve nursing care worldwide.
To launch this Journal was difficult because many journal publishers for nurses’ scholarly work were decreasing in number and many publishers were struggling for survival. Some publishers’ conservative or traditional viewpoints of nursing topics led to our establishment of the Journal through the University of Tennessee. With Dr. Michael Carter’s active and creative support, and with the visionary leadership of the Board Members of the Transcultural Nursing Society, we were able to launch this Journal. Such joint endeavors between a university press and an international organization has carved new directions in the publishing arena in nursing. Undoubtedly, this trend will continue as university presses take a position to nurture the scholarly work of faculty, students and worldwide community service leaders of noteworthy contributions.
The purpose of this Journal of Transcultural Nursing is, therefore, to provide a means for authors to share their transcultural nursing ideas, theories, research findings, or practice experiences with other nurses and other disciplines worldwide. It is clearly designed to advance the knowledge base of transcultural nursing to
As the first professional nurse to develop the field of transcultural nursing and knowledge of specific cultures, it is indeed, encouraging to see this Journal a reality, and to focus on the philosophical, epistemological and practice aspects. As editor of the Journal, I welcome diverse viewpoints, theories and different research methods to discover the multifaceted aspects of transcultural nursing worldwide, and to use this knowledge to establish or to improve culture care practices. We will encourage nurses to expand their world view of nursing, research, education and practices, and from many theoretical and experience perspectives.
Still another important function of this Journal is to accommodate transcultural nursing articles that have used qualitative research methods such as ethnography, ethnonursing, phenomenology, grounded theory, critical theory and other types of “pure” qualitative research studies that have frequently not been accepted in other nursing journals because they were non-quantitative. Many transcultural nurses have been very frustrated because they were unable to get their qualitative research work published because it was viewed as non-scientific, “too soft” and without statistical findings or measurable indices to substantiate their findings. As a consequence, many substantial, insightful and profound nursing research works have not been published in the nursing literature. Accordingly, transcultural nurse researchers have had to seek publication in non-nursing journals which has denied many nurses the opportunity to read their works. Such experiences have been annoying to transcultural nurses the past three decades, but now there is hope and encouragement for their creative and insightful work. The Journal, however, will actively encourage and support
A comparative transcultural nursing perspective will be of major interest to the Journal peer reviewers and editor. Nursing phenomena such as care, health, and environmental context will be important dimensions to share ideas and findings with other nurses. This comparative stance should greatly expand nursing knowledge and practices of diverse cultures in the world. Ethnohistorical, oral histories, uses of diaries, symbolic and metaphorical studies and many others will be supported along with transcultural political, cultural, economic, ethical and other care issues. The Journal advocates are also eager to expand nurses’ awareness about transcultural human caring and well-being from studies of Western and non-Western cultures.
In general, this Journal will support diverse interests, theoretical postures and research findings of nurses about transcultural nursing, human care and nursing in general. It will serve as the official publication of the Transcultural Nursing Society and will make the work of the Society better known and recognized worldwide. For many nurses, the Journal is a welcome addition and a critical need, especially for nurses who have struggled for nearly three decades to share their work about the subject of transcultural nursing. As readers become more knowledgeable about the transcultural nursing field, it will bring them into new circles of knowledge of different aspects of diverse cultural care beliefs, values and lifeways of human groups and their nursing needs. I warmly welcome and encourgage all nurses to share their viewpoints, theoretical and research work in this Journal.