Professional self-concept and caring perception in nursing stduents

Abstract

This is descriptive research to investigate professional self-concept and caring perception among nursing students and determine correlation between them. A total of 161 nursing students having performed no clinical practice participated in this study and they were 19.7±1.6 years old on average. Professional self-concept and caring perception scored 92.94±12.28 and 163.00±18.06, respectively, on average and they were significantly positively correlated with each other (r=.347, p<.001). On the basis of these results, research on professional self-concept and caring perception among nursing students is expected to provide an opportunity to improve nursing profession at its early stages and to support the demand for learning about nursing. It is also expected to establish solid concepts of nursing profession and caring, which is fundamental to nursing, and contribute to the improvement of nursing.