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Caring Behaviors of Nursing Students and their Attitudes Toward Older Adults

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2017, Doctor of Nursing Practice , Case Western Reserve University, School of Nursing.
Caring is an emotion. It is a feeling of compassion and an understanding of the difficulties of others. Research indicates that caring behaviors and attitudes are an important part of the knowledge base for nursing students. Caring behaviors and attitudes are an important part of the knowledge base for nursing students in order to provide competent care for older adults. This descriptive cross-sectional study reports findings of caring attitudes and behaviors of nursing students using the Caring Dimensions Inventory (CDI). The purpose of this study was to examine the self-reported attitudes and caring behaviors of nursing students toward older adults. The Caring Dimensions Inventory (R. Watson and Lea, 1997) and an investigator-developed demographic questionnaire was used for data collection. Data were collected from a group of traditional and accelerated BSN nursing students in a one-time cross-sectional research design. A sample size of 121 students participated. Scores from the CDI were computed in terms of means and standard deviations. Three research questions were analyzed: personal characteristics of nursing students, self-reported CDI scores between students who had prior experience with older adults before entering the nursing program and those who had did not have experience. SPSS software was used to determine the distribution of variables in the sample. The demographic characteristics: age, gender, race/ethnicity, prior experience providing care to older adults, and planned career trajectory were used to describe the sample. Results of the study indicated that there were no statistically significant differences between students who had prior experience caring for older adults before entering the nursing program and those who did not. Nursing students, however, had a high degree of caring in general, whether they were in the traditional or accelerated BSN program. Nursing students who selected nursing as a first-choice career were significantly higher in caring. An unexpected finding was that the majority of the nursing students were non-White, representing a number of different nationalities. Non-Whites scored statistically higher on caring compared to Whites. Implications for theory, education, practice, policy and research are addressed as well as recommendations for future research.
Patricia McDonald, PhD (Committee Chair)
May Wykle, PhD (Committee Member)
Richardean Benjamin, PhD (Committee Member)
111 p.

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Lambert-Davis, J. D. (2017). Caring Behaviors of Nursing Students and their Attitudes Toward Older Adults [Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casednp1499892376409129

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Lambert-Davis, Jacquelyn. Caring Behaviors of Nursing Students and their Attitudes Toward Older Adults. 2017. Case Western Reserve University, Doctoral dissertation. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casednp1499892376409129.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Lambert-Davis, Jacquelyn. "Caring Behaviors of Nursing Students and their Attitudes Toward Older Adults." Doctoral dissertation, Case Western Reserve University, 2017. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=casednp1499892376409129

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)