title: Caring behaviours of student nurses: Effects of pre-registration nursing education.
abstract: In an increasing technologised and cost-constrained healthcare environment, the role of pre-registration nursing education in nurturing and developing the professional caring disposition of students is becoming far more critical than before. In view of this growing demand, the aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of Singapore's pre-registration nursing programmes on students' concept of caring. A descriptive quantitative cross-sectional survey collected data using the Caring Behaviour Inventory from first and final year student nurses, nurse lecturers and nurses in practice. The findings based on student surveys indicated a statistically significant reduction in the overall level of caring behaviour in first to final year students. When compared with the findings of lecturers and nurses, less variance to lecturers than to nurses was found amongst the first years' score, and the lowest variance to nurses was demonstrated amongst the final year. A greater reduction was evidenced amongst Singaporean students, which was exaggerated with exposure to pre-enrolled nursing education and magnified with caring job experience. This study indicates more effort is necessary to harness student caring attributes in students' entire educational journey so that expressive caring is not subsumed in the teaching of students to meet demands of complicated contemporary care.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Hull, Cottingham Road, HU6 7RX, UK. Electronic address: j.loke@hull.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Jennifer C F
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Loke
authors.affiliation: Hull York Medical School, Park View Surgery, 87 Beverley Road, Hessle, HU13 9AJ, UK. Electronic address: kahlee@nhs.net.
authors.forename: Kah Wai
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Hymers College, Hymers Avenue, Hull, HU3 1LW, UK. Electronic address: 05blee@hymers.org.
authors.forename: Bryant K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: School of Health Sciences, Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore, 569830, Singapore. Electronic address: Asmah_Mohd_Noor@nyp.edu.sg.
authors.forename: Asmah
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohd Noor
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004508:Education, Nursing, Baccalaureate; D004645:Empathy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology; D015402:Nursing Education Research; D018794:Problem-Based Learning / Q000379:methods*; D012494:Sampling Studies; D012846:Singapore; D013338:Students, Nursing / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Expressive caring; Instrumental caring; Nursing education; Pre-registration; Singapore; Surveys