Commentary: Global leadership in transcultural nursing practice, education and research.

It is amazing what some women and men dare to do with their ideas in many places in the world. Creative thinking and actions are what the world needs most. Transcultural nursing has been an example of these attributes. While taking new actions may be troublesome to some people, yet new actions and new ideas can lead to a wealth of new knowledge and new ways to serve people. Transcultural nurses have taken such actions and are transforming nursing and health care in many places in the world. Leininger (2007: 1) Derived from Latin roots leadership refers to the act of guiding the course or direction; preceding or introducing something by going first. During the past six decades, transcultural nursing's foundress, United States-born nurse-anthropologist Dr Madeleine M Leininger and other transcultural nursing leaders from Australia and elsewhere in the world have provided leadership in establishing transcultural nursing as a formal area of academic study and practice around the world. Since its initial conception in the 1950s to its formal creation as a specialty and new discipline within the nursing profession in subsequent years, a substantial and important body of transcultural knowledge, theory, and research has been generated by nurse scholars not only from Australia but on every continent. ... continues ... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]