Purpose: This study examines the current state of nurses' self-awareness of caring behavior and patients' perceptions of their caring and analyzes the relationship between the caring behavior and the perception. The context selected for examination was non-teaching hospitals in Southern Taiwan. Methods: The participants were 239 patient-nurse dyads from 4 non-teaching hospitals in Kaohsiung and Pingtung. Data from structured questionnaires including self-reported demographic characteristics and the caring behaviors scale (CBS) were analyzed with stratified or clustered random sampling methods. Results: The results show that the nurses' indicated self-awareness of caring behaviors as ”often” while patients' indicated ”sometimes” and ”often”. The nurses ranked caring behavior from ”Knowing the patient” to ”Patient advocacy” and then ”Help patient through illness.” The rank order of the patients' perception progressed from ”Help patient through illness” to ”Knowing the patient” and finally to ”Patient advocacy.” Compared to the nurses, the patients scored the item ”Help patient through illness” higher. There is a highly positive correlation between the nurses' caring behavior and the patients' perceptions (p＜.01). Conclusions: Although there is a difference between the nurses' provision of caring behavior and the patients' need for care, the patients perceived the care and felt indebted to the nurses.

Purpose: This study examines the current state of nurses' self-awareness of caring behavior and patients' perceptions of their caring and analyzes the relationship between the caring behavior and the perception. The context selected for examination was non-teaching hospitals in Southern Taiwan. Methods: The participants were 239 patient-nurse dyads from 4 non-teaching hospitals in Kaohsiung and Pingtung. Data from structured questionnaires including self-reported demographic characteristics and the caring behaviors scale (CBS) were analyzed with stratified or clustered random sampling methods. Results: The results show that the nurses' indicated self-awareness of caring behaviors as ”often” while patients' indicated ”sometimes” and ”often”. The nurses ranked caring behavior from ”Knowing the patient” to ”Patient advocacy” and then ”Help patient through illness.” The rank order of the patients' perception progressed from ”Help patient through illness” to ”Knowing the patient” and finally to ”Patient advocacy.” Compared to the nurses, the patients scored the item ”Help patient through illness” higher. There is a highly positive correlation between the nurses' caring behavior and the patients' perceptions (p＜.01). Conclusions: Although there is a difference between the nurses' provision of caring behavior and the patients' need for care, the patients perceived the care and felt indebted to the nurses.

關懷行為;護理人員;病患

caring behavior;nurses;patients