KeywordsMadeleine Leininger, death, transcultural nursing

Madeleine M. Leininger

Born: July 13, 1925Sutton, Nebraska

Died: August 10, 2012Omaha, Nebraska

Andrews 1www.ojccnh.org

Online Journal of Cultural Competence in Nursing and Healthcare Volume 2, No. 4, 2012

Online Journal of Cultural Competence in Nursing and Healthcare

Volume 2, No. 4, (2012)

Editorial - Dr. Madeleine M. Leininger

Andrews, M.M. (2012). Editorial - Dr. Madeleine M. Leininger. Online Journal of Cultural Competence in Nursing andHealthcare, 2(4), 1-2. doi:10.9730/ojccnh.org/v2n4e1

Copyright © 2012. The Author. Reprints and Permissions: www.ojccnh.org/copyrights

Dr. Madeleine Leininger, founder of theworldwide transcultural nursing movement,theorist, scholar, researcher, author, speaker, aninternational leader in nursing and health caredied peacefully at her home in Omaha, Ne-braska on the evening of August 10th, 2002 atthe age of 87.

Many readers of the Online Journal of CulturalCompetence in Nursing and Healthcare use Dr.Leininger’s Culture Care Theory, ethnonursingresearch method, and other scholarly workswritten by Dr. Leininger in their clinical practice,teaching, and research. I’ve had the privilege ofknowing Dr. Leininger for more than 30 years asa mentor, colleague, and friend. As you know,Dr. Leininger spent 15 years of her academic ca-reer in Michigan where the OJCCNH has its of-fice. Associate Editor Dr. Marilyn McFarland didher PhD studies at Wayne State Universityunder Dr. Leininger’s mentorship, and prior toher passing, Dr. Leininger entrusted Dr. McFar-land and Dr. Hiba Wehbe-Alamah, both ofwhom are faculty members at the University ofMichigan-Flint, with the next edition of two ofher seminal works in the field of TransculturalNursing, Transcultural Nursing: Concepts, Theories,Research, and Practices, and Culture Care Diversityand Universality: A Worldwide Nursing Theory.

The HRSA-funded Cultural CompetenceProject came about as a result of Dr. Leininger’sencouragement to a group of Transcultual Nurs-ing Society leaders, including Dr. Marilyn Mc-Farland, Dr. Hiba Wehbe-Almah, and me, toseek grant funding to advance transculturalnursing and promote culturally congruent andcompetent care using a transcultural nursingframework. In July 2008, UM-Flint (in partner-ship with Madonna University and the Transcul-tural Nursing Society) was awarded a $1 milliongrant, Developing Nurses’ Cultural Compe-tence: Evidence-based and Best Practices thathas enabled us to 1). provide conferences, work-

shops and webinars on cultural competenceusing Leininger’s Culture Care Theory as an or-ganizing framework; and 2). integrate culturalcompetence into the undergraduate and gradu-ate nursing curricula. Funding also enabled usto launch the Online Journal of Cultural Compe-tence in Nursing and Healthcare (http://www.ojccnh.org). Dr. Leininger’s final publication, anarticle about her ongoing father protective careresearch, was published in the OJCCNH inApril, 2011.

During Dr. Leininger’s distinguished career,she has received hundreds of honors andawards, including the American Academy ofNursing’s prestigious Living Legends Award.She was a larger-than-life, charismatic, influen-tial leader in nursing and health care globallyand nationally. She not only studied and wroteabout care and caring, but she embodied it in herpersonal life. Her life’s work will live on throughall of us who knew and admired her.

Margaret M. Andrews, PhD, RN, FAAN, CTNEditor

Andrews 2www.ojccnh.org

Online Journal of Cultural Competence in Nursing and Healthcare Volume 2, No. 4, 2012