First and Fourth-Year Student’s Perceptions about Importance of Nursing Care Behaviors: Socialization toward Caring

Introduction: The essence of professional nursing is caring and so,nursing education must make caring as a significant part of theircurricula. In this regard, little research exists about how nursingstudents perceive caring. The aim of this study is to investigate thenursing studentsʹ perception toward caring and thus, the impact ofsocialization process on their perception of caring will be determined.Methods: A cross-sectional study was done among all first andfourth-year nursing students (n=230) in Tabriz and Urmia faculties ofnursing, 2012. Data were collected using Larson’s Caring Questionnairethat assessed the importance of nursing care behaviors (n=50) in sixdimensions: "being accessible", "explains and facilitates", "comforts","anticipates", "trusting relationship" and "monitors and followsthrough". Results: The importance of caring behaviors was evaluated bythe first and fourth-year nursing students in moderate to high level andalso, the both groups considered higher ranks for "monitors and followsthrough" and "being accessible" and lower ranks for "anticipates" and"trusting relationships". The fourth-year students only ranked "explainsand facilitates" higher than the first-year students, but the "comforts"dimension is not differed significantly between groups. Conclusion: Thefindings demonstrated that nursing education in this study has notlikely succeeded in producing intended changes in the nursing studentsʹperceptions. It is recommended to exactly find the perceptual changes orin principle the professional socialization process of nursing students,more research using longitudinal designs be conducted to examine thedifferences in studentsʹ perceptions of caring upon entering andcompleting the nursing program.