Academic nurse educators' use of caring attributes in the classroom could impact students' educational journey. Educators are leaders who should model caring behaviors toward their students. This role modeling will empower students to demonstrate these caring behaviors toward their patients. A literature review discovered a gap surrounding the study of faculty caring in the classroom. This research study explored students' perceptions and experiences of faculty caring in the undergraduate classroom in two traditional baccalaureate nursing programs. This study utilized a qualitative descriptive method with purposeful sampling and in-person recruitment at two universities in a Northeastern state in the United States. Watson's Theory of Human Caring framework guided the development of the semi-structured interview questions. A convenience sample of thirteen participants from the two universities shared their perceptions and experiences of faculty caring. Participants answered six demographic questions and completed virtual interviews. Three main themes and eight sub-themes emerged through content analysis of the interview data. Participants discussed that faculty caring correlated to a safe space where faculty used verbal and nonverbal communication and shared personal stories to enhance their learning. Participants discussed how the faculty's ability to read the classroom and utilize check-ins demonstrated faculty caring, influencing their success. Multiple participants verbalized certain faculty behaviors that expressed faculty caring. The behaviors of being approachable, supportive, personable, honest, flexible, knowledgeable, enthusiastic, respectful, humorous, and genuine demonstrated faculty caring. Educators can utilize these findings regarding the characteristics of faculty caring to reflect on their practice in the classroom.

Clinical experience is the most important component of nursing education. As part of the clinical education environment, the teaching behaviors of nursing faculty have considerable potential to influence the learning of students. To produce effective learning by students, nurse educators have a responsibility to instruct students so that learning is optimal. The purpose of this study was to explore the perception of students of clinical teaching behaviors of nursing faculty. The study uncovers new knowledge about clinical teaching behaviors based on the student perceptions during their own clinical experiences. A non-experimental survey with a descriptive exploratory design was used. A single convenience sample was drawn from senior level nursing students attending an on-campus associate degree nursing program in southern North Carolina. All students had completed clinical courses involving patient care. The instrument utilized was the Nursing Clinical Teacher Effectiveness Inventory. The survey consists of forty seven teaching behaviors for which students rated frequency of use for the clinical instructor on a seven point Likert scale.

Caring has been identified as an important quality in nursing that needs to be recognized and nurtured within its framework. The problem under study was how senior-level baccalaureate nursing students perceived the level of caring by their faculty. Nurse educators are in a situation where modeling, dialogue, and practice are a confirmation of caring and influence for nursing students. If it is assumed that caring is a significant part of nursing, then finding the elements of caring within the teaching process as well as in the curriculum content are important. The conceptual framework utilized in this study was Watson's theory of human care. The Organizational Climate for Caring Questionnaire was given to 102 senior-level nursing students at Boise State University and Idaho State University. The sub-scores of the questionnaire were calculated, and means, standard deviations, and minimum and maximum scores reported. Means for the subscales are as follows: modeling (4.16), dialogue (3.86), practice (4.29), and confirmation/affirmation (4.09). These means reflected that the students only slightly agreed that they felt their faculty were caring. This is a concern. Reliability for the subscales was reported using Cronbach's alpha: modeling (0.94), dialogue (0.91), practice (0.86), and confirmation/affirmation (0.92). Future areas of research include how faculty perceive their behavior as caring and whether faculty can learn caring techniques that will enhance student learning. Caring also needs to be incorporated into the nursing curriculum early in education and supported throughout.

Faculty-student relationships include overlapping concepts of caring and presence, both of which can have an impact on learning outcomes, satisfaction, and retention. Students of varying generations may have different attitudes and expectations for their academic experience concerning technology and the faculty-student relationship. Based upon the Theory of Human Caring (Watson, 1979) and the Community of Inquiry Framework (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 1999), the purpose of this study was to explore how students of different generations perceived caring behaviors by faculty and presence in online RN-BSN pregrams. The study utilized the Organizational Climate for Caring Questionnaire (Hughes, 1993) to measure students' perceptions of faculty caring behaviors, the Community of Inquiry Survey Instrument (Arbaugh et al., 2008) to measure students' perceptions of presence, and a researcher-developed demographic questionnaire. Participants were recruited from online RN-BSN programs within the northeast region of the United States to complete an online survey. Results showed no difference between generational perceptions of caring; however, millennials reported statistically significant higher perceptions of social presence when compared with non-millennials. Although generation was not a predictor of caring, all Presence subscales were positively and significantly correlated with the total caring score. Also, the number of online courses a student has taken was negatively and significantly correlated with total caring scores. Teaching presence and the reported number of online courses were significant predictors of the students' perceptions of caring in online courses.