Caring among nursing students.

Nursing students need to have a sense of being cared for in order to nurture their own ability to care for others. This phenomenologic study explored the meaning of caring among nursing students. Fifty-three nursing students were asked to describe a situation in which they had experienced caring from another nursing student. Their written descriptions were analyzed using Van Kaam's phenomenologic method. Four necessary constituents of a caring experience among nursing students emerged: Authentic presencing, selfless sharing, fortifying support, and enriching effects. The enriching effects of caring experiences among nursing students that were revealed support the author's stance that, along with faculty, nursing students can also be role models for caring.