NURSE CARING BEHAVIORS

The purpose of this research paper is to examine caring behaviours and how they relate to nurses practice from the psychiatric and general n urses' views. Whether this caring is influenced by the nurses' age, ge nder or qualification is also examined. The convenience sample used we re nurses (n = 118) of all grades and experience in a general hospital and in a psychiatric hospital. The Care-Q instrument was used. The re sponse rate was 66%. Statistical analysis included rankings of sub-sca le and individual items and the chi-square test of association. The re sults show that nurses ranked physically based caring behaviours highe r than affective behaviours. They emphasized monitoring and comforting behaviours but paid less attention to anticipatory behaviours. Gender appeared to have the greatest influence on what caring behaviours wer e valued. Male nurses were less likely than female nurses to be access ible, forming trusting relationships or performing comforting behaviou rs, The results challenge both nurses and nurse educators to examine c aring behaviours in nursing practice.