Effects of Nursing Students' Altruism and Compassion Levels on Care Behaviors

Abstract

Objective: In this study, it was aimed to examine the effect of altruism and compassion levels, which are considered as the basic values of nurses, on care behaviors. Methods: The universe of the descriptive research was 257 nursing students enrolled in the Health Sciences faculty of two separate foundation universities in the 2019-2020 academic year. The data were collected between February 2020 and March 2020 with 191 student nurses who agreed to participate in the study, using the "Introductory Characteristics Form", "Altruism Scale" and "Compassion Scale" "Care Behavior Scale" form. SPPS 25.0 statistical package program was used to evaluate the data. Results: The total score average of the student nurses participating in the study was 69.38 ± 13.14, the mean score of the Compassion Scale was 3.72 ± 0.74, the mean score of the Care Behavior Scale was 5.53 ± 0.38. A statistically significant relationship was found between altruism total scores and subscale scores, and compassion total and subscale scores, care behavior total scores, and subscales (p = 0.001; p <0.01). Conclusion: It was determined that the level of altruism and compassion affects care positively.