Coronary care patients' and nurses' perceptions of important nurse caring behaviors.

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship of patient-perceived and nurse-perceived caring behaviors.

DESIGN

Descriptive.

SETTING

Three not-for-profit hospitals in a large metropolitan western city.

SUBJECTS

Thirty coronary care patients and 30 coronary care nurses.

METHOD

Larson's nurse caring behaviors (CARE-Q) were rank ordered by the Q-sort method.

RESULTS

The patient's study group perceived behaviors that involved technology as most important, which differed from nurses, who perceived listening as the most important caring behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

This study supports the findings of other researchers that patients' and nurses' perceptions of important nurse caring behaviors are divergent.