Exploring Pre-Nursing Students’ Perceptions of Caring and Nursing: A Phenomenological Study

Caring is the essence of professional nursing practice. In today’s complex healthcare environment the challenge becomes how to balance the demands of the high acuity environment with caring practices. Nursing is at risk for losing the essence of caring as technology threatens to overwhelm our work (Wagner, 2008). As clinical nursing care reprioritizes caring knowledge and practices, it becomes critical to examine how caring practices are taught, how they are prioritized and evaluated in the baccalaureate curriculum. A phenomenological study was conducted to understand the presence of caring knowledge in pre-nursing students’ essays. Fifty essays were analyzed revealing seven themes of caring. They are: the language of caring, sharing information, building relationships, role modeling, providing competent care, delivering caring actions and the results of being ill. Nursing education needs to consider these findings with caring as a way of being and a therapeutic intervention that is equal in importance to all other nursing interventions and care.