Caring behavior and associated factors among nurses working in Jimma University specialized hospital, Oromia, Southwest Ethiopia, 2019

BACKGROUND: Nursing care behavior and nurse’s perception of effective care behavior is an act, conduct, and mannerism enacted by professional nurses that convey concern, safety, and attention to the patient. Behavior associated with caring has a paramount role in linking nursing interaction to the client in experiences but, the concept is ambiguous and elusive toward different scholars to reach on common understanding. Only a few studies have been done on the caring behavior and associated factors globally, and no study was done in this study area. Therefore; the purpose of this study was to assess caring behavior and its associated factors among nurses working in Jimma University specialized hospital, southwest Ethiopia. METHODS: An institutional-based cross-sectional study design was conducted on a sample of 224 nurses working in Jimma university specialized hospital from March 20–April 20, 2019. Data were collected by a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistics including frequency table, mean, standard deviation and percentage were employed. Bivariate and multiple linear regression analysis was used with regression coefficient (β), coefficient of the determinant (R(2)), CI 95% and p < 0.05 were used for statistical significance. RESULTS: The overall proportion of nurses caring behavior was 80.3% which was mostly measured in terms of professional –technical (82.9%) and psychosocial (81.3%) dimension. Job satisfaction as personal satisfaction (beta = 1.12, p = 0.00), professional satisfaction, (beta = 1.07, p = 0.00), joint participation in caring process (beta = 0.58, p = 0.00,) satisfaction with nurse management (beta = 0.85, p = 00) were significantly associated with caring behavior. CONCLUSION: The proportion of nurses who had a high perception of caring behavior was found to be lower. Thus, all predictors have their own effect on enhancing job satisfaction, improving and creating conducive management and working environment to increase caring behavior. Further comparative studies involving multidisciplinary and patient point of view were recommended.