Perceptions of caring by nurse educators

The purpose of this paper is to report on nurse educators' perceptions of caring behaviors. A review of the literature indicated a lack of consensus between nurses and patients of exactly what constitutes caring behaviors. Since subjects in previous studies were based on nurses educated at various levels, it was hypothesized that a more homogeneous sample of nurses with advanced education might provide different findings. Using the Larson CARE-Q, 110 nurse faculty, managers, and clinical specialists/practitioners were asked to indicate what they believed were the most and least important caring behaviors. Because the 72 educators' findings were similar to those of 38 other nurses with advanced education, their responses were combined. A clear difference between the perceptions of nurses and patients was obtained, and the data support the results of previous studies--nurses have a tendency to consider comfort and trusting relationship items as most important while patients perceive behaviors associated with physical care as most important. No significant differences were found between educators according to type of programs or functional groups, and few differences were found according to age, years of experience, or clinical areas.