untitled

The Ethnonursing

Research Method

The ethnonursing research method was specifically

designed by Leininger (2002) to study the culture

care theory. This was the first research method de-

signed to study a nursing theory and related nurs-

ing phenomena. The method facilitates the

discovery of people care knowledge and culturally

based care related to the theory. Leininger has

Leininger has defined the ethnonursing re-

search method as “a qualitative research

method using naturalistic, open discovery,

and largely inductively derived emic modes

and processes with diverse strategies, tech-

niques, and enabling tools to document,

describe, understand, and interpret the

people’s meanings, experience, symbols,

and other related aspects bearing on

actual or potential nursing phenomena.”

defined the ethnonursing research method as “a

qualitative research method using naturalistic,

open discovery, and largely inductively derived

emic modes and processes with diverse strategies,

techniques, and enabling tools to document, de-

scribe, understand, and interpret the people’s

meanings, experience, symbols, and other related

aspects bearing on actual or potential nursing

phenomena” (1991b, p. 79).

Qualitative Paradigm

and Quantitative Paradigm

In order to understand the qualitative ethnonurs-

ing research method, it is important to understand

the major philosophical differences between the

qualitative and quantitative paradigms. Leininger

has described qualitative paradigmatic researchas

“characterized by naturalistic and open inquiry

methods and techniques focused on systematically

documenting, analyzing, and interpreting attri-

butes, patterns, characteristics, and meanings of

specific domains and gestaltic (or holistic) features

of phenomena under study within designated

environmental or living contexts” (Leininger, 1997,

p. 43). She has described quantitative research as

“characterized by a focus on an empirical and ob-

jective analysis of discrete and preselected variables

that have been derived a priori and as theoretical

PART TWO:

Application

of Leininger’s

Theory of

Culture Care

Diversity and

Universality

Marilyn R. McFarland

The Ethnonursing Research Method

Culture Care Theory and Nursing

Practice

Summary

References

The purpose of the second part of Chapter 20 is
twofold. The first part will include an overview of
the ethnonursing research method, which was de-
signed to study the Theory of Culture Care
Diversity and Universality. The second part will
present a discussion of the implications of the cul-
ture care theory and related ethnonursing research
findings for clinical nursing practice. Many nursing
theories are rather abstract and do not focus on
how practicing nurses might use the research find-
ings related to a theory. However, with the Culture
Care Theory, along with the ethnonursing method,
there is a purposeful built-in means to discover and
confirm data with informants in order to make
nursing actions and decisions meaningful and
culturally congruent (Leininger, 2002).

CHAPTER 20 Application of Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and Universality 321