Caring interactions among nursing students: a descriptive comparison of 2 associate degree nursing programs

Increasing emphasis has been given to the importance of caring as a curricular theme in nursing education and the value of developing students who will be able to function in a practice role as a caring nurse. The challenge for nurse educators is to understand and facilitate those processes through which students can be socialized to caring as a professional value in nursing. The findings from research that was conducted to investigate caring in nursing education suggest that caring can emerge during students' interactions with other students and during their interactions with faculty members. Therefore, it may be useful to capitalize on peer relationships as a strategy through which students can experience caring behaviors and develop skill in the practice of caring for others. The findings from this study support the need to investigate experiential learning strategies that are designed to promote the practice of caring among the student peer group. Additional research is needed to validate the effectiveness of such strategies as a method through which nursing students can learn caring.