Nurse Caring Behaviors Following Implementation of a Relationship Centered Care Professional Practice Model

Background : There has been considerable attention to nurse ca ring in the literature, and recent attention has be en focused on the importance of caring not only to pat ient outcomes, but also to nurse outcomes such as t he importance nurses place on caring within their professional ro le. Aims: The purpose of this study was to describe nurses’ perceptions o their own caring behaviors six months after implementation of a new Relationship Centered Care Professional Practice Model. Methodology: A descriptive design was used to survey all 1500 c linical nurses providing care in a large academic medical center. The Caring Behavior Inventory was used, and background data were collected to describe the sample. Results: Five hundred thirty eight nurses completed the sur vey, for a response rate of 35.9%. Participants had high perceptions of caring behaviors in all of the asses sed areas: assurance of human presence, knowledge and skill, respectful deference to others, and positive connec tiveness. Conclusions: Results of this study are consistent with prior re search on nurses’ perceptions of caring. As in prio r research the more observable aspects of care receiv ed the higher ratings. Several factors may have con tributed to the results of high scores on caring behaviors, includi ng the implementation of a professional practice mo del that specifically targeted key components of caring in t he provision of direct patient care. Further, throu ghout the implementation of the professional practice model t here was considerable attention paid to continuing education targeted toward aspects of caring, provided both fo r nurse leaders and clinical nurses.