The most recent harvest of newly registered nurses augured well for schools and universities in Negros offering degree programs in nursing. In Negros Occidental, for example, the congratulatory messages have poured in generously with long lists of successful nurses joining the bandwagon. Even schools with relatively new programs in nursing have already produced their pioneering batch of registered nurses.

In Dumaguete, the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences (to include the Medical Technology Department and the Physical Therapy Program) of Silliman University placed No. 3 among the nursing schools all over the Philippines with a passing average of 97 percent compared to the national passing rate of 43 percent, considered an all-time low in recent years. Silliman University comes after St. Louis University of Baguio with a passing percentage of 99 percent and Xavier University in Cagayan de Oro City with a passing average of 98 percent. No school posted a hundred percent passing rate.

Although the country still has room for more nurses, the demand for the profession in the United States, considered the most lucrative destination for our local nurses, has suffered a recession lately. There are other options, of course, including staying on for at least two years in the country to get experience and be exposed to varied situations, a requirement by the Board of Nursing before anyone may be given a go-signal to work abroad.

Nurses are generally conceived to be caring and nurturing, thus, a study that focused on the question, “What does caring mean to you as a nurse?” is worth looking into, aside from its being interesting and informative.

What adds to the interest is the direct involvement of Philippine nurses, being those among registered nurses in 11 countries who were in the sample population that focused on the relationship in their caring attributes, professional self concept, and technological influences, and how these factors affect the practice of their profession.

Published in the International Journal of Nursing Studies, the study was funded by a Competitive Earmarked Research Grant of the University Grants Committee of Hong Kong. The researchers included, among others, Dr. Maria Teresita Sy Sinda, dean of the College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences of Silliman University.

As defined in the study, caring – the theoretical foundation of nursing – is identified as one of the core values by hospital authorities worldwide to be actualized in clinical practice. Exactly how caring attributes relate to nurses’ professional self image and quality nursing service in the context of a contemporary technological environment have yet to be operationalized.

In its totality, 1,957 registered nurses from 11 different countries were involved in the study which aimed to develop an understanding of and compare the responses to items relating to caring, professional self concept, and technological influences. To collect data, an instrument containing 104 Likert items was administered to RNs working in general hospitals. The instrument contained sections, which examined professional self concept, technological influences, and caring attributes.

Descriptive and inferential statistics revealed that many of the Asian nurses in the sample were younger, had less experience yet were more qualified than their “western” colleagues. The mean scores for the caring attributes for nurses from the Philippines, Sweden, and South Africa were significantly higher than those from China (Beijing), Korea, China (Hong Kong), and Scotland.

The Korean sample demonstrated the lowest mean score for professional self concept while the New Zealand sample was the highest. The Australian, Canadian, New Zealand, Scotland, and Swedish samples were strongly of the opinion that the increase in technology has not brought about any more spare time in nursing and generally had a more negative opinion about the influence of technology when compared to those from China (Beijing), Philippines, China (Hong Kong), and Singapore. The results are discussed in the light of the cultural differences in the sample and recommendations for future research are considered.

In the absence of published international comparative studies on the concept of caring in nursing, the research compared the caring attributes of registered nurses from 11 different countries and contrasts this against their views of themselves (professional self concept) and their perceptions of technological influences in their practice.

An international sample was chosen in order to further understand the meaning of caring and other factors which are considered to influence nursing care and which are likely to differ across cultures. In a world that is flooded with technology and where communication of vast amounts of data occurs in milliseconds, there is a chance that the cultural essences of nursing and caring may be lost or neglected. This explosion of the information about the nature of caring may erroneously produce what may seem an international standard dictated by dominant literature and ideas not necessarily representative of international nursing.

The research aimed to examine some cultural differences, to uphold these as important and to examine the meaning of the differences in the light of the literature, the variables under measure, and the importance of cultural differences in nursing and patient care.

A descriptive quantitative design was chosen for two reasons. First, no international studies to date have attempted to provide such a comparison and second, a reliable and valid questionnaire in the most convenient, cost and time effective means of gathering such data was used. The method used does not preclude nor attempt to deny the value of future qualitative studies, which the researchers hoped would occur as a result of their earlier study.

Aside from Dr. Sinda, the other researchers were D. Arthur, S. Pang, T. Wong, M. F. Alexander, J. Drury, H. Eastwood, I. Johansson, K. Jooste, M. Naude, C. H. Noh, A. O’Brien, K. Y. Sohng, G. R. Stevenson, S. Thorne, D. Van der Wal, and S. Xiao.