Contradictory views of nursing care among students at the end of their nursing education

Abstract

Aim To understand how nursing students at the end of their nursing education view nursing care. Background Although care is understood as the essence of nursing, it is often difficult for nurses to provide care, which demonstrates a contradiction between theory and practice. Moreover, it is unknown to what extent this contradiction is transmitted to future nursing professionals or how they view nursing care and its practice. Design Qualitative ethnographic research. Methods The fieldwork was conducted between December 2010 ‐ May 2012 in a university nursing school in Barcelona and two centres where students carry out most of their practical education. The data collection techniques were participant observation and focus groups. A thematic analysis was used. Results The students demonstrated contradictory views of nursing care. On one hand, they voiced a more theoretical, official definition where care is considered the core of the profession. On the other hand, they also expressed a view where the provision of care is not nurses’ principal daily activity, a fact that did not surprise them. Students interpreted caring as an activity that has low value and that can be transferred unproblematically to other professionals. Conclusion The contradictory views of care reveal a problem in the transmission of the definition of nursing to new generations of professionals and reflect a problematic professional reality where there is dissonance between how nursing is defined and how it is carried out in practice.

Perceived caring attributes and priorities of preregistration nursing students throughout a nursing curriculum underpinned by person‐centredness

“…As part of this, Francis acknowledged that nurses educated through higher education are not necessarily rendered incapable of delivering personal care, but that the profession is challenged in keeping such values central to practice. Indeed, this is confirmed in studies internationally (Arreciado Marañón & Isla Pera, ; Benson et al., ; Loke et al., ; Phillips et al., ). The results of this study confirm that students’ perceptions of caring were more developed through their education on this programme and that the practice they ranked highest as caring (at the end of year 3) was assisting a person with an activity of living .…”

“…(, ) were longitudinal as they did not follow students to the point of registration. This study provides evidence that perceptions of caring can be positively developed up to the point of registration, addressing the challenges of valuing caring actions identified by Arreciado Marañón and Isla Pera () within a curricular framework grounded in person‐centeredness and delivered within a culture that reinforces it.…”

“…The current evidence‐base on the presence and retention of such values in nursing education support Francis’ view that this is a challenge. Indeed, this is also reflected internationally with one Spanish study identifying that student nurses about to enter their profession interpreted caring as a low value activity that can be delegated to others (Arreciado Marañón & Isla Pera, ). This was despite these newly qualified nurses seeing care at the core of nursing.…”

“…Person‐centredness has become a central concept for healthcare practice internationally (Edvardsson, Fetherstonhaugh, & Nay, ; McCance, Gribben, McCormack, & Laird, ), rendering it an approach to practice that must be considered by nurse educators, particularly when it can improve experiences of care and outcomes. Globally, nursing education has been challenged with developing and sustaining caring attributes in preregistration nursing student (Arreciado Marañón & Isla Pera, ; Loke, Lee, Lee, & Noor, ; Murphy, Jones, Edwards, James, & Mayer, ; Phillips et al., ), despite caring and person‐centredness being at the core of nursing practice. This study will consider how caring attributes, as a component of person‐centredness, are held or lost in a cohort of nursing students over the duration of a preregistration curriculum using the Person‐Centred Nursing Framework (PCNF) (McCormack & McCance, ) as its educational framework.…”

Male nurses' views of gender in the nurse–family relationship in paediatric care

“…Despite the little value attributed to care (Arreciado et al ), the desire to help and care for others is a major factor motivating people to become nurses (Wilkes et al ), which may explain why certain professionals are more inclined to establish good relationships with families. However, some professionals choose nursing for other reasons (Ashghali et al, ), either for practical purposes or as a springboard to other careers (Wilkes et al ).…”