An exploratory study of associate degree nursing students' conceptual basis for caring practices

Nursing educators, especially in associate degree nursing (ADN) programs, are confronted with the challenge of finding ways to include caring in practice. Recent studies provide guidance for incorporating caring behaviors into curricula, but little is known about students' definitions of care and what constitutes caring behaviors. The purposes of this exploratory study were to (1) describe students' definitions of caring and (2) determine how students know when they have cared for patients. ETHNOGRAPH was used to systematically group responses from a sample 117 first- and second-year nursing students from two programs. Students' descriptions of caring distinguished between meeting physical and psychosocial needs of patients, and depictions of actual caring behaviors. Students' responses to knowing when they cared for a patient fell in the categories of role performance, comfort, patient responses, and human needs gratification. Implications useful to educators in creating an environment where nursing students gain the skills necessary to further caring behaviors and practices are given.