Show Your Stuff and Watch Your Tone: Nurses' Caring Behaviors

Area of Science:

• Nursing Care
• Patient Experience
• Qualitative Research

Background:

• Nurses' caring behaviors are essential but often undocumented.
• Understanding patient and family perceptions of caring is vital.
• Lack of documentation hinders the provision of patient-centered care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore patient and family perceptions of nurses' caring behaviors.
• To identify specific actions perceived as caring or not caring.
• To inform the development of high-quality intensive care environments.

Main Methods:

• Phenomenological study involving 14 intubated patients and 8 family members.
• Semi-structured interviews were conducted to gather perceptions.
• Inductive qualitative analysis was used to identify themes.

Main Results:

• Key themes included: providing information, reassurance, demonstrating proficiency, and presence.
• Other identified caring behaviors: guidance and a soothing tone.
• Negative perceptions arose from poor pain management, lack of information, and negative attitudes.

Conclusions:

• Directly asking patients and families yields valuable insights into perceived caring behaviors.
• Understanding these perceptions is elemental for designing healing environments.
• This research highlights the importance of patient-centered communication and care in high-intensity settings.