Altruism, the values dimension of caring self-efficacy concept in Iranian pediatric nurses

BACKGROUND: Self-efficacy is the most influential among factors affecting nurses’ performance. Yet, understanding of the constituent elements of the caring self-efficacy concept was not considered. This study was to introduce altruism as one of the main aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. MATERIALS AND METHODS: This is part of a larger study on the concept of caring self-efficacy conducted with qualitative content analysis approach in Iran. Participants included 27 clinical pediatric nurses and instructors, selected purposively. Data were collected using semi-structured interviews and analyzed using conventional content analysis method. RESULTS: Theme “altruism” as one of the main themes extracted from the analysis of the interviews in this study. This theme includes two main categories of “humanistic care” and “caring attitude.” CONCLUSIONS: This paper introduces altruism as one of the values aspects of caring self-efficacy in pediatric nurses. Efficient nurse with features Humanistic care, through the provision of maternal care and family-centered care and caring attitudes resulting from religious beliefs and loving children to care for the children.