Caring Behavior Coding Scheme based on Swanson's Theory of Caring - development and testing among undergraduate...

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Professionalism

Background:

• Patient complaints about non-caring behaviors are increasing.
• Defining and measuring caring behaviors is crucial for patient well-being.
• Existing research lacks a comprehensive theoretical framework for coding healthcare interactions.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and validate a coding scheme for healthcare provider behaviors.
• To base the coding scheme on Swanson's Theory of Caring.
• To differentiate between verbal and nonverbal caring and non-caring behaviors.

Main Methods:

• Instrument development using observational data.
• Video recordings of interactions between nursing students and standardized patients.
• Timed-event sequential continuous coding in specialized software.

Main Results:

• Developed the Caring Behavior Coding Scheme (CBCS) with 17 verbal and 8 nonverbal codes.
• Demonstrated high content and face validity.
• Achieved excellent inter-rater reliability (k=0.82) and agreement with gold standard (k=0.87).

Conclusions:

• The CBCS is a theory-based instrument for analyzing healthcare provider behaviors.
• It effectively codes verbal and nonverbal caring and non-caring actions.
• The CBCS can inform interventions to improve patient well-being through enhanced caring behaviors.