CARING BEHAVIOURS AMONG OPERATION THEATRE NURSES INHOSPITAL UNIVERSITI SAINS MALAYSIA

Abstract

Caring behaviours presented by the nurses while providing care is the essence of nursing. However, operation theatre nurses must also adhere to the nursing value in social sciences and humanities to address the patient's needs. The concern of the nurses should not only be for the basic life sustaining needs but also for physiological, psychological, socio cultural and spiritual dimension ofpatient's human responses. The purposes of this study were to determine the perception regarding caring behaviours and the level of caring among the Operation theatre nurses in Hospital Universiti Sains Malaysia. In addition, there were associations when the determination between demographic variables like genders and years of experience of the nurses in relation to their caring behaviours is necessary. It isa quantitative, descriptive survey design and 95 nurses participated in the study. The revised Wolfs Caring Behaviours Inventory was used to measure the dimensions of caring. "Professional knowledge and skill" was identified to be the highest among the five dimensions of caring that was being measured. Findings show that the nurses demonstrated a high level of caring behaviours during their course of work. However, none of the demographic factors studied were significantly associated to their caring behaviours.