the effect of instructors' caring behavior on nursing students' professional self-concept: a descriptive-correlational study

Background & objective: positive professional self-concept plays an important role in improving clinical performance and effective professional role performance among nursing students. since this construct can be influenced by various factors, including educational interactions, the present study was designed and done to check the correlation between nursing students' professional self-concept and their perception of instructors' caring behavior.materials & methods: the present study is a descriptive-correlational research done on 248 nursing students from semester 4 to semester 8 of the bachelor's degree program in zanjan province, who were included in the study through stratified random sampling. data were gathered using a three-part questionnaire (including demographic information, nursing students' perception of instructor caring (nspic), and nurses' self-concept questionnaire (nscq)). statistical analysis was done using spss 25 software and descriptive indices and inferential tests (independent t-test, pearson correlation coefficient, one-way analysis of variance (anova), and post-hoc tests).results: the mean ± standard deviation (sd) of nursing students' professional self-concept in zanjan province was 229.82 ± 40.29, with the highest and lowest mean scores belonging to the communication dimension 97.39 ± 23.8 and leadership dimension 18.37 ± 21.8, respectively. the mean ± sd of instructors' caring behavior was 126.37 ± 14.70. the highest and lowest mean scores belonged to the respectful sharing dimension 26.15 ± 4.26 and controlling versus flexibility dimension 3.04 ± 4.82, respectively. the relationship between professional self-concept and the controlling versus flexibility dimension of caring behavior was inverse (r = -0.15, p = 0.019), while the relationship between professional self-concept and other dimensions of instructors' caring behavior was direct and positive. this means that with an increase in instructors' controlling versus flexibility behavior, students' professional self-concept decreases, and conversely, with an increase in other dimensions of caring behavior, students' professional self-concept increases.conclusion: based on the findings, students have moderate professional self-concept and are far from the desired level. on the other hand, considering the relationship between professional self-concept and instructors' caring behavior, it is suggested that educational workshops be held to improve instructors' caring behavior. furthermore, looking into other factors related to professional self-concept in nursing students is also recommended.