Abstract:
Adolescent pregnant women have special needs which require specific care. Congruency between caring needs and caring received contributes to satisfaction about caring. The purpose of this descriptive research was to examine the relationship of caring needs, perception of caring behaviors, and satisfaction concerning nurses caring behavior with adolescent pregnant women. The conceptual framework guiding the study was derived from Larsons Caring Concept (Larson, 1984). The purposive sample consisted of 85 adolescent pregnant women who attended prenatal clinics at Nakhonphanom Hospital and Sakhonakhon Hospital, Thailand, from March, 2008 to June, 2008. The instruments used in this study were the Demographic Data Questionnaire, the Caring Needs Questionnaire, the Perception of Caring Behaviors Questionnaire, and the Satisfaction about Nurses Caring Behaviors Questionnaire. Descriptive statistics and Pearson's product moment correlation were used to analyze the data. Results of the study revealed that adolescent pregnant women had a fairly high level of caring needs, a fairly good level of perception of caring behaviors, and a fairly high level of satisfaction about nurses caring behaviors. Caring needs were positively related to the perception of caring behaviors at the significant level .001 (r = .59). The perception of caring behaviors was positively related to satisfaction about nurses caring behaviors at the significant level .001 (r = .82). Based on findings of this study, nurses as care providers should assess caring needs, perception of caring behaviors, and satisfaction about nurses caring behaviors of adolescent pregnant women. Moreover, nurses should be aware of each adolescent pregnant womans caring needs.