Investigation of Nursing Students' Perception of Caring Behaviors

Introduction: Nursing is a caring profession. Developing nursing student’s perception of the care remains one of the most important goals of the education process.

Methods: A descriptive-correlational study was carried out in order to identify the caring behaviors, perceptions and associated factors of the nursing students. The target group of the study consisted of 530 nursing students. The data were collected by using the “demographic characteristics form” and “Caring Assessment Questionnaire” (Care-Q). T-test and ANOVA were used in the statistical analysis of the data. Multiple Regression Analysis - Hierarchical Model was used for the analysis of determination.

Results: Mean (SD) of total Care-Q points of the students was 5.0 (0.9), the highest average score of the sub-groups was 5.5 (1.1) in the trusting relationship sub-group; and the lowest average points was 4.5 (1.2) points in the Anticipates sub-group. It was concluded that the perceptions of the students about the caring behaviors is at a good level, and the perceptions of the students about the caring behaviors was affected by the attitudes, plans and experiences of the students about the profession.

Conclusion: Developing the confidence of the students during the nursing education, ensuring the opportunities for empathy and developing the course contents on the bases of the concept of care are the applicable results of this study.