Abstract

Objective: Peer’s caring behavior is allegedly able to overcome the difficulties experienced by nursing students and is one of the contributing factors to establish caring behavior after parents. This study aimed to determine the relationship between peers caring behavior and nursing internship students caring behavior to patients. Method: A total of 94 respondents is nursing internship students from two nursery study programs in Jakarta and Depok were selected by simple random sampling technique as the sample of this study. Peer caring behavior was measured by the Peer-Group Caring Interaction Scale (PGCIS) and nurses caring behavior for patients was measured by Caring Behaviors Inventory (CBI-24). Results: Pearson test results showed there was a relationship between peer caring behavior and student caring behavior to patients (p <0.001) with a positive correlation value (r = 0.415). This finding shows that the better caring behavior of peers, the better caring behavior of nursing internship students towards patients. In this study, we also found that the dimensions of peer caring behavior that needed to be improved by nursing students were modeling, and the dimensions of caring behavior towards patients that needed to be improved were positive connectedness. Conclusion: Nursing education institutions needs to empower peers in developing a caring culture for students, both integrated with the curriculum and student activities.

Keywords: caring behavior; caring culture; nursing student; peer-group