title: Nurse practitioners' perceptions of their caring behaviors.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To explore nurse practitioners' (NPs) perceptions of their own caring behaviors, the relationship between sociodemographic variables, environmental factors, and NP's perceptions of their caring behaviors.
  
  
  METHODS
  A mailed survey to a systematic random sample of 200 members of an Illinois NP group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The top ten caring behaviors in rank order were appreciating the patient as a human being, showing respect for the patient, being sensitive to the patient, talking with the patient, treating patient information confidentially, treating the patient as an individual, encouraging the patient to call with problems, being honest with the patient, and listening attentively to the patient.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The quality of instruction in the biomedical aspect of nursing education is relatively easily assessed. Caring is nurses' hidden work that may go unrecognized except when the caring behaviors are missed by the patients or their families.
authors.affiliation: Springfield Clinic, Springfield, Illinois, USA. bbrunton@accunet.net
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Brunton
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Beaman
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017028:Caregivers; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009722:Nurse Practitioners / Q000523:psychology*; D009732:Nursing Care / Q000592:standards*; D010465:Perception; D011369:Professional-Patient Relations; D011787:Quality of Health Care