The relationship between nurses' professional values and caring behaviors

Introduction: Professional values give meaning and direction to clinical practices by providing a philosophical framework for nursing practices. The internalization of professional values is quite effective in providing professional service and is very important in terms of service quality. Design: This descriptive study has been conducted to determine the relationship between nurses' professional values and caring behaviors. Methods: A total of 176 nurses participated who worked in hospitals in this study. The data were collected online using the Nurse Information Form, Nurses Professional Values Scale-Revised (NPVS-R), and Caring Behaviors Assessment Tool Nursing Version-Short Form (CBAN-SF). Data analysis was performed using SPSS software, the Mann–Whitney U test, the Kruskall–Wallis test, and the Spearman correlation coefficient. Results: Of the nurses participating in the study, 66.5% are between the ages of 21–30, 80.7% are female, and 71% are university graduates. No statistically significant difference was found regarding professional values between the mean scores from the NPVS-R and CBAN-SF in terms of the nurses' age, gender, position, working style, clinic at which they work, or their educational status. The nurses scored high on the NPVS-R and CBAN. A moderate, significant, and positive relationship was found between nurses' overall scores on the NPVS-R and CBAN-SF. Conclusion: As nurses' perceptions of professional values increase, their perception toward assessing care behaviors also increases. In addition, a relationship exists between nurses' education levels and assessment of care behaviors and between their work experience and their perceptions of professional values. Conducting studies on the subject using different designs is recommended.