Nurses' Caring Behaviour And Identification Of Influencing Factors: The Case Of A Public Hospital

Research Article

Abstract

Introduction: Caring behavior aims to provide care in accordance with the needs of patients by taking an approach to improve their health status and is a concept directly related to the performance of nurses. The fact that patients' health outcomes are related to nurses' caring behaviors shows that it is imperative to focus on care in nursing practice.                                            

Objective: The study was conducted to determine nurses' perceptions of quality of care and the factors affecting these perceptions.

Method: It is a descriptive study. It was conducted with nurses working in a public hospital between February 10 and February 20, 2025. There were 279 nurses in the sample of the study. Data were collected using the Socio-demographic Information Form and the Caring Behaviors Scale-24 form. Descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way variance test (ANOVA) and Kruskal Wallis analysis were applied to analyze the data.

Results: The mean total score and sub-dimension total scores of the “Caring Behaviors Scale-24” of the nurses participating in the study were as follows: Assurance sub-dimension mean score 5.30±0.68, Knowledge-Skill sub-dimension mean score 5.55±0.64, Respectfulness sub-dimension mean score 5.28±0.73, Commitment sub-dimension mean score 5.15±0.81, and scale total mean score 5.32±0.66, respectively. In the study, a statistically significant difference was found between the total score of the nursing behaviors scale and professional experience, liking the nursing profession, average weekly working hours, the time allocated to patient care in the 8-hour shift, finding the nursing care provided in the unit where they worked adequate and satisfaction with the nursing care provided (p<0.05).

Conclusion: It was found that nurses' perceptions of quality of care were higher, nurses with 11 years or more of professional experience, those who love the nursing profession, those with an average weekly working time of 40 hours, those who spent two hours or more on patient care in an eight-hour shift, those who found nursing care adequate in the unit where they worked, and those who were satisfied with the nursing care provided had higher total scores on the care behaviors scale. In line with these results, it is recommended to organize trainings that will strengthen nurses' bonding with the patient, empathy, and support for the patient and to create positive working environments in order to increase the quality of care.