Perception of nursing students from the Middle East about caring: A descriptive, comparative, cross-sectional study

Abstract

Aim: To investigate the perception of undergraduate nursing students in different countries in the Middle East about caring. Design: A cross-sectional, descriptive, comparative design. Methods: A total of 1,582 nursing students from six different countries in the Middle East completed the Caring Dimensions Inventory. Results: The total mean score of caring was 138.8 (± 15.8), indicating a high level of caring. The highest mean score was for nursing students from Egypt (M = 145.37 ± 15.97), whereas the lowest was for nursing students from Palestine (M = 135.36 ± 13.48). The caring perception was more significant for female students than male students, and no significant correlation was found between students' ages and caring scores. Conclusions: The high level of caring among nursing students reflects the involvement of caring behaviour in the nursing curricula, which motivates nursing schools to continue stressing the importance of caring and to enhance this behaviour among their graduates. Patient or Public Contribution: Improving the students' caring competencies as recommended by the study will influence the caregiving quality in the future that will be reflected in nurse–patient caring relationships and raise the patients' and public satisfaction with nursing care.