Abstract

Nursing education is increasingly offered in online settings. In order to continue to convey and sustain caring as a core value in nursing, it has become necessary to better understand what caring means to students in the online nursing classroom setting. Sitzman & Leners (2006) identified online instructor behaviors that supported students feeling cared for in online nursing education environments. In this study, 122 BSN online students from 6 different universities completed an online Likert-type survey in relation to prioritizing the caring instructor behaviors previously identified by Sitzman & Leners (2006). Respondents also answered one open-ended question related to identifying other caring online instructor behaviors not presented in the survey. A subset of 15 respondents participated in an online interview meant to further clarify why certain instructor behaviors were judged more important than others, the pros and cons of online learning, and perceived importance of peer-to-peer interactions in the online setting. Attributes of caring online instructor behaviors that emerged from the data included Empathic Presence, Clarity/Expertise, Timeliness, Full Engagement/Accessibility, and Flexibility/Openness. Themes that emerged in relation to the attributes helped to clarify specific attitudes and intentions associated with caring online teaching behaviors.

Description

This dissertation has also been disseminated through the ProQuest Dissertations and Theses database. Dissertation/thesis number: 3309200; ProQuest document ID: 304817862. The author still retains copyright.

Author Details

Kathleen L. Sitzman, PhD, RN, CNE, ANEF, FAAN, Distinguised Watson's Caring Science Scholar

Sigma Membership

Gamma Rho

Type

Dissertation

Format Type

Text-based Document

Study Design/Type

Other

Research Approach

Mixed/Multi Method Research

Keywords:

Nursing Education, Online Education, Best Practices

Advisors

Leners, Debra W.||Wilson, Vicki||Watson, Jean||Cochran, Kathryn

Degree

PhD

Degree Grantor

University of Northern Colorado

Degree Year

2007

Rights Holder

All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record.

All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository.

All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.

Review Type

None: Degree-based Submission

Acquisition

Proxy-submission

Date of Issue

2022-11-16

Full Text of Presentation

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