Assessing the caring behaviors of critical care nurses

Abstract

Objective: To assess the critical care nurses’ perception of their caring behaviors and factors affecting these behaviors.

Methods: Participants of this descriptive correlational exploratory study included 277 critical care nurses selected conveniently from nurses worked in all critical care units in King Khalid Hospital, Jeddah. A self-reported questionnaire namely, “Critical Care Nurses Caring Behavior Perception” developed by the researchers after reviewing related literature was used to assess caring behaviors and their affecting factors as perceived by critical care nurses.

Results: Seventy percent of the nurses aged between 31 to 50 years old and more than half of nurses had ICU experience ranged from 6 to 10 years, while two thirds of nurses had no previous training about caring behaviors. The study findings revealed that the majority of nurses had high scores of perceived caring behaviors, whereas the mean of their perception was 296.96 ± 18.32. There was a statistical significant positive relationship between nurses’ perception and their work circumstances, workload, job satisfaction, educational background and patient characteristics.

Conclusions: It is important to consider critical units’ circumstances, nurses’ educational background, job satisfaction, as well as the nature of critically ill patients in order to promote nurses awareness and implementation of caring behaviors. Moreover, replication of the current study using qualitative approach for in-depth analysis of the impact of factors could affecting caring behaviors on nurses’ perception in various highly specialized critical care units.