Effects of nurses' individual and professional characteristics and nursing work environment on caring behavior

This descriptive and relation-seeking study was conducted online between February 2021 and April 2021 with 229 volunteer nurses experienced in private, university and public hospitals in Istanbul, and it was aimed to examine the effects of nurses' individual and professional characteristics and work environment on caring behaviors. The data were collected using Caring Behaviors Inventory-24, Nursing Work Index- the Practice Environment Scale and 17 questions which included nurses' sociodemographic, professional and work conditions characteristics. In data analysis, Mann-Whitney U test, Kruskal-Wallis test (Bonferroni-adjusted Mann Whitney U test in further analysis) and Spearmann correlation analysis were used. Nurses' caring behavior and work environment were found to be at a moderate level. While there was no statistically significant difference between nurses' caring behavior score and gender, age, marital status, educational status, institution type, total experience, overtime status, wage status and workload perception; a statistically significant difference was found with professional position, department, duration of institutional experience, duration of experience in the current unit, shift pattern, willing to work in the unit, considering provided care as adequate, satisfaction with quality of care, job satisfaction and institutional satisfaction. There was a positive, moderate level, and very significant relationship between work environment and nurses' caring behaviors. Consequently, healthy work environment has a positive impact on nurses' caring behavior. In order to increase the care behaviors of nurses, it is recommended that nurse managers develop strategies to improve working environment conditions. Keywords: Nursing, nursing work environment, caring behaviors