The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Assessment
Model was developed in 1988 in response to the need for
nursing students in an undergraduate program to assess and
provide care for patients that were culturally diverse. Today,
the fourth edition of Transcultural Nursing: Assessment and
Intervention (1999) is in process. In 1998, Mosby Yearbook
published a companion book that addresses Canadian ethnic
groups (Davidhizar & Giger, 1998). In addition, a pocket
guide was also published by Mosby that provides a quick
user-friendly format to understand various cultural groups
(Geissler, 1998). These books provide chapters on six cultural
phenomena and chapters that address cultural groups which
have been authored by nurses who are experts in the culture or
who are members of the cultural group.
The Giger and Davidhizar Transcultural Model postulates
that each individual is culturally unique and should be
assessed according to six cultural phenomena: (a) communication,
(b) space, (c) social organization, (d) time, (e) environmental
control, and (f) biological variations.