ABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this article is to discuss the development and testing of a scale designed to examine nurses' caring behaviours. A pilot study was conducted with a convenience sample (n = 81) of 42 nurses (providers) and 39 patients (consumers). The setting was two community hospitals in the New England Region. The respondents were able to assign a rank of the items (nurses' caring behaviours) with a spread of mean values from 3.5 to 16.7. There was agreement on the most caring behaviour, 'The nurses treat me as an individual', on the behaviour in the middle range of caring, 'The nurses comfort me by their silent presence', and on the least caring behaviour, 'The nurses did not talk about how my illness might affect my life'. The Wilcoxon two-sample rank-sum test was used to test the difference in rank of the 20 items between the providers and the consumers. There was a significant difference between the providers and the consumers in the ranking of nine of the 20 items. The consumers valued behaviours that recognized their individual perspective as well as that of their family and behaviours that helped them anticipate and prepare for change. The providers placed a greater emphasis on the behaviours that were more geared towards the comforting aspects of care by encouraging patients to express and vent their feelings. These findings allow clinicians to be sensitized to their caring behaviours by increasing their realization of how behaviours are perceived by patients. The instrument needs minor revision and then further testing is indicated.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Attitude to Health , Caregivers/psychology , Nursing Care/psychology , Patient Satisfaction , Adult , Aged , Aged, 80 and over , Caregivers/statistics & numerical data , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Nursing Care/statistics & numerical data , Patient Satisfaction/statistics & numerical data , Pilot Projects , Research Design , Surveys and QuestionnairesABSTRACT
The primary purpose of this study was to test an instrument designed to assess nurses' caring behaviors in a neonatal intensive care unit, the setting for the study. The convenience sample (n = 88) was 42 nurses who worked in a neonatal intensive care unit and 46 parents whose infants were hospitalized there. The Wilcoxon two-sample rank-sum test was used to test the difference in ranking of the 15 items (nurses' caring behaviors) between the nurses and parents. There was agreement on the most caring behavior, "The nurses understood my need to touch my baby and encouraged me to do so" and the least caring behavior, "The nurses did not know the sex of my child." However, a significant difference was found between the nurses and parents on 4 of the 15 behaviors. The findings serve to sensitize the clinicians to their caring behaviors by heightening their awareness of how caring behaviors are perceived by parents.
Subject(s)
Attitude of Health Personnel , Nurse-Patient Relations , Nurses/psychology , Parents/psychology , Adult , Female , Humans , Infant, Newborn , Intensive Care Units, Neonatal , Male , Neonatal Nursing , Professional-Family RelationsABSTRACT
Neonatal intensive care units have continually grown in number and complexity in their short history. The care given to infants and families in these units is done, in large part, by nursing. This article discusses the development of a scale that will explore the perceptions of this care by both consumers and providers. The perceptions of each group will be compared to determine if care that is thought and intended to be caring for providers is indeed perceived as such by consumers. This is of significant importance to the developing body of knowledge related to caring in nursing, and it will also promote care that is family centered.