knew she had moved from being a stranger to a
trusted friend when the director of nursing said,
“You are on your own today; you know, several res-
idents really look forward to your visits.” After the
researcher had been at the research site for several
months, an elderly Anglo American resident in-
formant said to her, “I’m really revealing myself to
you today,” and then went on to describe her nega-
tive feelings about the increasing numbers of
African Americans coming to live at the retirement
home. The researcher had moved from a stranger
to a trusted friend; the informant revealed mean-
ingful and sensitive information to her, and the in-
formant felt safe and trusted the researcher. This
enabler is invaluable to gauge one’s relationship
with informants as the study progresses.
Leininger’s acculturation enabler (Leininger,
1991b) has been used in many ethnonursing stud-
ies to identify traditional and nontraditional be-
liefs, values, and general lifeways of informants.
This enabler is useful with all informants, but espe-
cially with immigrant groups undergoing rapid
cultural changes. The Sunrise Enabler was also de-
veloped to help researchers discover multiple and
diverse holistic lifeways related to culture care ex-
periences and practices. It is unique as a guide for
holistic yet specific factors influencing care in cul-
tures under study within ethnohistorical, language,
social structure, and environmental contexts
(Leininger, 1991b, 1995, 1997).
In addition to the four enablers just discussed,
the ethnonursing researcher develops a special en-
ablerthat fits with the specific domain of inquiry
under study, such as the care meanings and experi-
ences of Lebanese Muslims (Luna, 1989), the cul-
ture care of Anglo and African American elders
(McFarland, 1997), and the culture care of preg-
nant Mexican American women (Berry, 1996).
These enablers were specifically designed by the re-
searchers to help tease out in-depth specific details
of culture care phenomena related to the theoreti-
cal assumptions and the domain of inquiry of the
study. Examples of special enablers can be found
in the studies previously mentioned and in other
ethnonursing research studies listed in the refer-
ences at the end of this chapter and in the Journal of
Transcultural Nursing(1989 to 1999). The complete
text of an enabler,The Experience of Mexican
Americans Receiving Professional Nursing Care: An
Ethnonursing Study, has been published in the
Journal of Transcultural Nursing (Zoucha, 1998,
pp. 42–44).Qualitative Criteria to
Evaluate Ethnonursing Studies
Leininger (1991b, 1995) has developed specific cri-
teria to evaluate qualitative research, including
ethnonursing studies. Because qualitative studies
have very different meanings and purposes, goals,
and outcomes from quantitative studies, the nurse
researcher is required to use qualitative criteria to
evaluate ethnonursing research studies. Leininger’s
(1997) succinct definitions of qualitative criteria
are as follows:CHAPTER 20 Application of Leininger’s Theory of Culture Care Diversity and UniversalitySource:Leininger, M. (1991).Culture care diversity and universality: A theory of nursing.New York: National League for
Nursing (p. 95).