Comparing care behaviors between sophomore and senior nursing students

Abstract

Caring is defined as a core of health. It is believed that caring promotes patients' health and satisfaction. Some study revealed that caring in all of dimension did not applicable in the contemporary nursing care. With the effect of education on nursing students care quality, we decided to compare nursing care behaviors in first year and fourth year nursing students. The descriptive-cross sectional study was conducted on all of nursing students in second and forth years in Islamic Azad University (Dezful Branch). Sample size was 54 person including thirty six students in the third semester and twenty students in the eighth semester that passed clinical trainings in general wards. For data gathering Wolf's Caring Behaviors Inventory, which designed based on Watson's theory and literature review, was used. The Inventory was comprised of 42 statements. Every item was ranked 6point Likert- type scale. Reliability ascertained by Cronbach's alpha (0.97). All the inventories were filled by clinical supervisor of the course that was equal in two groups. Observation of behaviors revealed "professional knowledge and skill" as the most and "to pay respect to others" as the least important subscales. Moreover, the senior students gained higher caring point than the sophomores. The total point of care behavior follows an increasing trend as the students go through the program. Apparently, formal and informal educations are effective on behavioral development of the student. The main limitation of the study was that only one trainer participated as behavior observer and the author has no way to ensure no biased evaluation against/in favor a participant.