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November 13, 2002
by Marilyn A. Ray, RN, PhD, CTN
With war or rumors of war looming on international and domestic fronts, whether they involve the organized military, suicide bombings or bioterrorism, new sociocultural relations are being reshaped. New meaning systems are being justified unfortunately by conflict, hostility, and violence. Where does nursing stand in a world blemished with stark images of death and destruction? Although a long history of warfare exists, nurses increasingly are faced with local and global dilemmas, such as the effects of September 11th and threats to national and physical security, which could challenge the humanitarian interpretation of nursing.
These crises suggest that in contemporary society and in nursing, there is a mandate for transcultural caring ethics. Ethics deals with questions about how we ought to live in society. Modern moral questions relate to what kind of actions ought we achieve or what actions will facilitate more good in the nation and world than any possible kind of alternative. One important "good" is transcultural caring which deals with the interrelationship between compassion or mercy and justice or right action within the dynamics of intercultural interaction (Ray, 1994). Transcultural caring ethics thus deals with questions about how we ought to live with members of the local, national and world communities when we share a common humanity but also, can hold different political, economic and legal values and religious or spiritual beliefs.
The social philosopher, Dewey (Bernstein, 1976), awakened us to the key problem of our moral and political lives. The question that Dewey took to be the most central was the moral character of community life itself. Is community only community of place, is it
community of shared values, or is it community where all human interests are furthered? Dewey advanced the idea of community in its strongest possible sense wherein personal identity is realized in and through the communities of which people are a part. However, how do we as human beings come to understand and further common interests where values may not be shared in common? What kinds of questions should be asked about how we ought to live (or nurse) when we share a common humanity but hold different beliefs, values and attitudes about life and living?
Transcultural caring ethics is a form of knowledge-based practice that is geared to improving human understanding. Understanding the effects of the abuse of power that create the conditions for conflict or war and subsequently discerning the ethical "good" where personal cultural identities within community transactions are safeguarded are examples. Transcultural caring ethics calls for loyalty to human beings first, where cultural capital (fidelity to humans beings within diverse cultural traditions) is preserved. By placing people first, meaning and purpose are underscored. Drawing people into the zone of significance through respect and caring are the core ethical values where personal and collective identities can be acknowledged and realized. For nursing, opening that space requires compassion. Nurses are both the interpersonal and public advocate of people wherein communicative caring action can genuinely help others. The starting point is entering into the complexities of culture by listening and giving voice to the issues of injustice and social suffering and determining mutually how the issues can be confronted. Only through communication that is participatory, horizontal, creative and ethical, coupled with a balanced critique of transcultural relationships, considered cultural truth, can a sincere and trustworthy and peace-filled community life be achieved.
References:
Bernstein, R. (1976). Philosophical profiles: Essays in a pragmatic mode. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.
Ray, M. (1994). Transcultural nursing ethics: A framework and model for transcultural ethical analysis. Journal of Holistic Nursing, 12(3), 251-264.
About the Author:
Dr. Marilyn Ray is currently a Professor of Nursing at the Christine E. Lynn College of Nursing, Florida Atlantic University. Dr. Ray is a well known international speaker and has published several articles in the area of caring, transcultural caring, ethics and qualitative research. You may contact her at mray@fau.edu.
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