nurses’ perception of importance of caring behaviors and its determinant factors

nurses’ perception of importance of caring behaviors and its determinant factors     salimi s [1] *, azimpour a [2] , fesharaki m [3] ,mohammadzadeh sh [4] ,     received: 26 sep, 2011 accepted: 2 dec, 2011     abstract   background & aims : it is recognized globally that the theoretical foundations of nursing are based on an understanding of caring. the purpose of this study was to investigate nurses’ perceptions of caring behaviors and determinant factors.   materials & methods : this descriptive-comparative study included 143 nurses. the participants were selected based on quota sampling approach from four educational hospitals, dec. 2010-mar. 2011. data were gathered using two valid and reliable questionnaires, cdi-25, dncb-38. translation accuracy and face validity of the persian form of the cdi-25 and dncb-38 were assured using expert panel review. reliability of the tools determined using test-retest and cronbach's alpha. the statistical analysis was performed using spss v. 18.0. the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t- test, anova, and chi square. a p-value of less than .05 was considered statistically significant.   result : there were no significant differences between overall scores of the psychosocial or technical items of caring. there were statistically significance correlation between some demographic traits of nurses (age, job experience, university of graduation, recruitment status) and their scores to dncb sub-items. three most important reported caring behaviors were: being technically competent with a clinical procedure, providing privacy for a patient, and involving a patient with his or her care. the least important reported caring behavior was keeping relatives informed about a patient. three most important determinants of caring behavior were workload, interest in nursing profession, and job satisfaction, but the only predictor of caring behaviors was participation in educational course about ‘caring’ after graduation.   conclusion: findings showed that despite the emphasis in nursing profession, some important technical (e.g. assisting a patient with an activity of living) and psychological aspects of caring (e.g. listening to a patient or sitting with a patient) might be neglected. we suggest revision in in-service education of the occupied nurses in order to improve quality of care and correction of misconceptions about caring in nursing. furthermore, we suggest changing student selection process to the nursing course so that more interested students will select nursing profession.   keywords: caring behaviors, nurses’ perception, determinant factors     address: nursing department, islamic azad university-urmia branch, airport road, urmia, iran   tel : (+98) 9143404534,   email: [email protected]   [1] assistants professor, nursing and midwifery faculty, islamic azad university of urmia branch, urmia, iran (corresponding author)   [2] master student in nursing, nursing and midwifery faculty, islamic azad university of tehran- medical branch, tehran, iran  [3] associate professor, nursing and midwifery faculty, islamic azad university of tehran- medical branch, tehran, iran  [4] instructor, nursing and midwifery faculty, islamic azad university of tehran- medical branch, tehran, iran