Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Caring Behaviors

Aim: The aim of this study was to determine nursing students’ perceptions of caring behaviors. Material-Methods: Universe of the descriptively-designed study consisted of nursing students of a university (N=620). No sample was selected, 342 students who accepted to participate in the study were included. Data was collected with questionnaire form and Caring Assessment Questionnaire. Frequencies, percentage distribution, mean, standard deviation, independent samples t test, and one-way variance analysis were used for data analysis.Results: The mean age of students was 20.33 ± 1.5, 91.2% of the students were female, 94.4% of them were single and 59.1% of them chose nursing willingly. The students’ mean score of Caring Assessment Questionnaire was 5.23±0.9. The students who chose the nursing profession willingly, who stated that caring is the primary duty of nurses and who experienced caring and being cared had higher Caring Assessment Questionnaire scores (p 0.05). Conclusion: It was determined that nursing students’ perceptions of caring behaviors were good; choosing the profession willingly and having experiences such as caring and being cared influenced their perceptions towards caring behaviors. In the line of these results; providing students to choose the profession willingly, providing practices regarding continuity of positive caring behaviors of the students during nursing education are recommended.