Nurses’ Perception of Caring Using a Relationship-Based Care Model

Abstract

Aim: Studies are lacking which examine nurses’ perception of caring when using a relationship-based care (RBC) model. This study examines nurses’ perception of caring using the Caring Assessment for Care Givers instrument (CACG). Methods: A cross-sectional, descriptive design was used to study responses of medical-surgical nurses who work primarily providing direct patient care in a 267 bed United States hospital. A demographic questionnaire was administered along with the Caring Assessment for Care Givers (CACG) instrument. Results: The average respondent was female, held a Bachelor’s of Science Degree, and had 7.9 years of nurse employment experience. Results revealed an overall high perception of caring for the sample population with a mean total score of 107.14 (range of 25-125) using the CACG instrument. Of the five CACG subscales, the subscale for the caring process of ‘doing for’ had the highest overall composite score of 21.68 (range 5-25) while the subscale for the caring process of ‘knowing’ had the lowest overall composite score of 21.10 (5- 25 range). Further analyses found a small to moderate, positive relationship between the overall nurses’ perception of caring score and the number of years of experience in nursing (r = .29, p