Caring from the Graduate Student Perspective

Abstract

This paper focuses on the nature of caring from the perspective of graduate nursing students enrolled in a graduate core nursing theory course. It describes student perspectives of caring derived from a two part learning exercise designed to introduce students to inductive thinking processes employed in nursing theory development. The graduate students identified the essence of caring as a special form of ‘being with’ a patient encompassing giving of self, involved presence, intuitive knowing, and support for the integrity of the patient. Nursing actions associated with caring include making time, active listening, touch, and advocacy with competence as an underlying dimension of caring actions. Attitudes deemed essential to the development of caring incorporate creativity, recognizing limitations, and respect for the uniqueness and humanity of a suffering individual. That caring has benefits for the caregiver as well as the patient finds voice in student descriptions of the effects of caring as a source of professional validation, and a transformational turning-point their perceptions of themselves as caregivers.