student's experience of learning caring in a college of nursing grounded in a caring philosophy

Caring has been identified as an essential value for baccalaureate education across all programs of study. The purpose of this phenomenological research study was to investigate the lived experience of students learning caring in a college of nursing grounded in a caring philosophy. The question guiding the research was: "What is the student's experience of learning caring in a college of nursing that has caring as a central tenet in its philosophy?" This study was guided by the caring theories of Boykin and Schoenhofer (2001), Roach (2002), and the philosopher Mayeroff (1971). The researcher interviewed seven senior baccalaureate student nurses attending a public university. The nursing program at this university was grounded in a caring philosophy. The research questions explored the students' experiences of learning caring at this school of nursing. One student shared this thought with the researcher, "I knew who I was and I knew I could care about people, but I didn't know how to use caring in nursing. The educational process helped me to transfer caring to nursing." Transcripts of the audiotaped interviews were analyzed using Colaizzi's seven-step methodology. Two major themes and six sub-themes related to learning caring emerged and an exhaustive description of the students learning of caring in a caring based curriculum was developed. The two major themes identified were: Innate Knowing of Self as Caring, and Caring in the Curriculum. The first major theme of Innate Knowing of Self as Caring is supported by the sub-themes: Being present for the patient, Being open to reshape the patient's experience, and Enhanced capacity to care. The second major theme of Caring in the Curriculum is supported by the sub-themes: Clinical experiences are valuable to learning, Doing little things to express caring, and Learning activities facilitated understanding caring. Descriptions of the two major themes and six sub-themes were portrayed with verbatim stories told to the researcher by the student participants. Finally, implications for nursing education, research, practice, theory, and policy are presented for the reader.