Application and evaluation of a caring code in clinical nursing education

This study evaluated the effectiveness of the Caring Code, a tool for teaching caring to nursing students during clinical practice. An experimental, longitudinal design was used. A sample of 480 students from a 5-year junior nursing college program in Taiwan was randomly divided into experimental and control groups. Each member of the experimental group carried a copy of the Caring Code, the content of which was explained by the clinical instructors at the beginning of clinical practice, and about which reminders were provided weekly. A questionnaire was distributed to the patients during the nursing students' 1-year clinical practice, once prior to the implementation of the Caring Code and twice afterwards, to obtain quantitative data on the caring behaviors of the two student groups. Instructors and nursing students were interviewed for their experiences and perceptions of using the Caring Code. The Caring Code had a statistically significant positive effect on student caring behavior.