Impact of a Caring Behavior Educational Program Based on Human Care Theory on Nursing Students’ Perception of the Care

Introduction:Caring as a multidimensional concept in nursing can be realized through teaching main values. Thus, this study was performed to assess the impact of caring behavior educational program on nursing students with the aim of developing their potentials to become a healthcare professional staff. Methods: This quasi-experimental (educational-interventional) study was performed in the winter semester of academic year 2014 in Abadan School of Medical Sciences. Nursing students of 6th and 8th semester were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups (n=29, each group). The educational program designed on the basis of Watson’s theory was implemented for the experimental group during their internship in medical-surgical nursing while the control group received routine instructions. The students’ perception level was assessed by CDI-35 tool before and after the intervention for both groups. Data were analyzed using chi-square, independent T-test, and paired T-test. Results:No significant difference was found between the two groups regarding demographic variables. A significant difference was found between the groups in the pre-test in terms of improper care (p=0.0001). In the post-test, the mean score increase in each of the five dimensions of caring behavior was significant in the experimental group (p= 0.0001) while in the control group, there was a significant increase only in the technical-professional dimension (p=0.001). Conclusion:Given the importance of nursing care in every health system, and the fact that the goal of nursing clinical education programs is to train nurses who may promote the art and science of nursing, designing programs to strengthen and empower nurses is inevitable and the results of this study might be helpful in this regard.