Caring paradigms. A study of the origins and the development of caring paradigms among nursing students

The international discussion about caring has been reflected by two central themes in the twentieth century: (1) How can caring be developed into a holistic paradigm focused on caring and man as a human being? (2) How can a scientific basis be formed for the education, research, and practice of caring? The purpose of this study is to describe how the paradigm should be formed, developed, and integrated among nursing students during the training period. To what extent the paradigm will remain after the training period will be presented in a later article. The data collection was done by means of a questionnaire. The paradigm-measuring instrument was developed in accordance with Törnebohm's paradigm factors. The research group comprised 63 graduate students. In summary we can state that the students have a paradigm already at the beginning which can be characterised as a caring paradigm. Distinct changes have taken place during the training period. The changes are highly significant (p less than 0.001) as to all factors except the capability of developing caring activities (p less than 0.05) and getting people interested in caring (p less than 0.10).