The phenomenon of caring from the novice student nurse's perspective : A qualitative content analysis

• Background: Caring has been seen as a nursing term/concept, including all the aspects that are used to deliver nursing care to patients. Sometimes caring has been conceptualized as a relational expression of human concern and as a collection of human activities that assists others. Aim: This study is to identify and describe the nature of the concept 'caring' from the novice student nurse's perspective. Methods: A total of 127 Swedish novice student nurses wrote comments in essay form to the question: 'what is your image of the concept caring?' Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis, with the use of the theoretical framework: 'doing' and 'being'. Findings: Three categories of caring were identified as 'doing', 'being' and 'professionalism'. The phenomena of caring and the caring process could be illustrated as including hand (doing), heart (being) and brain (professionalism). Conclusions: It is now time to make care more visible as a principle of practice and of moral action. This could be explicit in a clear professional framework and incorporated more fully into nursing education programmes. Caring is to take care of the entire human being physically, emotionally and intellectually. Nurses need to use hand, heart and brain in order to fulfil their commitments.

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