Journal of Transcultural Nursing

Topics of interest include, but are not limited to:

Theory

  • Nursing, anthropological and social theories that explain the components of culturally congruent care, health care beliefs, lifeways and other culturally relevant phenomena.
  • Constructing a cultural language. Should we have a common vocabulary?
  • Ethnonursing vs. ethnography? Cross-cultural vs. transcultural?
  • Cultural components of current nursing theories.
  • Cultural theory applications in organizational leadership, management of diverse work forces.
  • Defining a common knowledge base for nurse anthropologists and transcultural nurses.
  • Definitions of culture (including the culture of alternative lifestyles, workplace cultures, etc.).
  • New perspectives / models.
  • Taxonomy of culture in health care.
    Practice
  • "Compliance" issues: Is the client non-compliant or is the plan of care culturally incongruent?
  • Birth & rites of passage rituals that impact health care practice.
  • Cultural assessment instruments.
  • Cultural beliefs about pregnancy, labor and delivery and post-partum care.
  • Cultural definitions of illness.
  • Family roles and responsibilities for ill clients: How does the nurse help the family meet its role expectations with the family member who is ill?
  • Hospice care and advanced directives (withdrawal of treatment issues).
  • Interpreters: What are the benefits and drawbacks to using interpreters in health care?
  • Issues in Death and Dying (e.g. prolongation of life, autopsy, care of the body after death).
  • Medications and home remedies.
  • Mental health/illness: What does the nurse need to know about the cultural values and perspectives of mental illness of the client and family?
  • Nutrition & diet: How can the nurse integrate a prescribed therapeutic diet into the client's culturally-specific ways of preparing foods.
  • Patient education: How does the client's culture affect the method and content of patient education (e.g. prenatal care, discharge planning, newly diagnosed diabetics, etc.).
  • Radically-abusive clients: How does the nurse respond to radically-insensitive clients?
  • Symptom management: How does culture affect the patient's perspective of his/her symptoms, and how does it affect the nurse's assessment of these symptoms?
  • Taxonomy of culturally appropriate diagnoses, interventions and standards of care.
  • Transcultural perspectives in the care of the elderly.
  • Transcultural verbal and nonverbal communication methods.
  • Use of culture care theory as well as sociological and anthropological theories to guide clinical practice.

Research Methodology

  • Grant / funding opportunities.
  • Instrument development and evaluation: validity and reliability issues.
  • Integration of qualitative and quantitative methods in grant proposals for studies of cultural phenomena.
  • Mentoring researchers of cultural phenomena.
  • Methodologies useful for investigating cultural phenomena.
  • New research instruments for use in transcultural nursing research.
  • Subject recruitment & retention (especially for special populations).
    Theory testing.
  • Translation issues.

Education / Pedogogy

  • Certification standards in transcultural nursing. Should there be a sub-specialty and/or generic certification?
  • Cultural immersion approaches (student practica in foreign countries, in other-culture U.S. communities).
  • Educational tools for increasing cultural awareness (e.g. utilizing works of literature).
  • Integrating transcultural nursing concepts into the baccalaureate and graduate curricula.
  • Staff development programs for cultural competence skill and knowledge base development.
  • Teaching foreign nursing students.
  • Teaching minority American nursing students (A.D.N. / B.S.N. / graduate).
  • Transcultural nursing curricula.
    International Activities and Perspectives.
  • Collaborative international research models.
  • International consultation (educational, clinical, etc.): use of theoretical frameworks to guide process.
  • Global student and faculty exchange: criteria and opportunities.
  • Government and non-government health policy formation.
  • Impact of government regulations on health care delivery to minority populations.
  • Establishing and international forum on common health care issues.
  • International programs.
  • Political and legislative trends relevant to diversity and health care.

Information Resources

  • Internet search strategies for cultural topics and resources.
  • Book reviews.
  • Nursing programs offering graduate specialization in transcultural nursing
  • Library search strategies for cultural topics.
  • Annotated bibliographies.