Caring and goodwill

Caring and goodwill as behaviour traits gave participants confidence that the well-being of a person will be protected. Participants regarded educators displaying caring and goodwill in their behaviour as trustworthy. Students need academic and social support, which can be displayed through caring and goodwill. Participants maintained that the ideal educator acts like a mother to students. When educators cannot keep information confidential, students doubted the educators’ trustworthiness. Maintaining confidentiality was emphasised, because if confidentiality is broken, the trust between educators and students will be hampered.

“...you can go back to her and again whenever you do have a some private thing, you can go to her, because you know that this person, you will be helped, you can like bridge to her and talk to her.” (G1)

“I think it is very difficult to them to keep things confidential. You always hear about it ... Somehow they know about it, maybe of your personal things, they know about it. Even sometimes about your money was not paid out, somewhere, somehow, somebody will know about it and ...” (G3)

“I went to the lecturer in private and I told her something that is personal and then maybe tomorrow she makes an example, apply a situation to it in class, but not like say my name and anything. I will be puzzled and then I will not trust that person again. I won’t be able to go to her again and tell her about my problems.” (G8)

“I would say that the lecturer should be like a mother, a mother that is open. Most of us are far away from our homes and we should go to the lecturer with any problem we do have, and not receive a negative attitude from the lecturer, we should at least feel comfortable to talk to them, talking to the lecturer with any problem, she should be open to us that you may come to here.” (G4)

According to the findings of Holland’s study (2015:255), trust develops mutual understanding and an emotional connection establishes a milieu for effective support. In the relationships between educators and students, an emotional bond develops when

an educator has positive attitudes towards students and students feel comfortable to disclose information with the assurance of confidentiality.

Participants expected that educators should advocate for the rights of the students. Participants expressed the expectation that such advocating should be to the benefit of the students. Having educators who speak in favour of students, that is, advocating for them, contributed to the trusting relationships between the educators and students.

“I think our lecturers should advocate for us, they must advocate for us, if we have a problem with our moderator, you call our lecturers, the one that we trust. If the moderator says, this is wrong and says, this is not like this, my lecturer should be able to say ‘no’ this is where the information comes from, in that way, I will be able to trust my lecturer. Next time when she stands in front of me, and give me information I will be able to trust her.” (G7)

Advocacy is not only beneficial for the nurse-patient role, but also between colleagues and in the nursing profession (Begley 2010:529; Lattavo 2014:141). In the educator- student relationship, when the educator advocates for the rights of students, caring is demonstrated by the educator that fosters trust in the educator-student relationship.

According to the participants a caring educator is empathetic to students, and assists students with social problems. A caring figure that understands students’ social situation forms a support system for students. Such caring educators gave students the courage to approach them, not only for academic support, but for social assistance too.

“And she must be empathetic, not sympathetic, empathetic towards us, because sometimes you really have a problem and you don’t have that courage to walk to one of your lecturers because maybe one of your friends does not understand it and you need to talk to someone, so I think the lecturer should be like there, a sort of, ah, like I don’t … a kind of support, part of your support system, because I mean, they ... we spend our lives the most of our hours with them, so they should be like that support system. We should have that courage and that free will to just go.” (G3)

According to Adams (2016:1), a caring person is described as a person that displays actions of concern, compassion and kindness. Participants viewed that caring educators

should have compassion and empathy and provide support in the teaching and learning environment.

Caring from the side of educators included private and social support to students. Social support refers to caring for and assisting students in appropriate situations. Participants expected that the caring of educators should be extended to the private and social needs of students. When educators care for students, students will be referred to appropriate departments for appropriate support.

“So when you do have a personal, psychological problem, they should refer you to the correct people. If they cannot help, they need to refer us to the correct resources that you need to solve your personal problem.” (G1)

“It will depend on the type of problem the student is having, sometimes it can be psychologically. We like - we are coming from different backgrounds and then sometimes you can have personal problems, so maybe your personal problems are affecting you academically. So that she can refer you to solve whatever problems you are having.” (G4)

Participants viewed professional nurses as caring when the professional nurses communicated with patients and treated them in a manner that would not harm them. When participants observed that the professional nurse treated the patients with a caring approach, they trust the professional nurse. Participants needed professional nurses to have caring attitudes towards them to enhance their learning capabilities in the clinical environment. If professional nurses failed to have empathy and show caring toward patients, students were discouraged.

“I think there is ... to see that also ... she has time for the patient and have effective communication with the patient and you, the patient ... their non- maleficence and beneficence you know. The patient should trust you that you are not going to harm the patient ... beneficence and non-maleficence. Because the patient is ... beneficence I think is also trust, you know the nurse is going to treat you well; professional nurse is going to treat you well. And that is basically all, and fairness for all patients.” (G2)

“Sometimes, you as student will come into the room, then the patient tells you he is in pain. Then you go to the sister and tell her that Mr so and so or Mrs has pain and she says ‘ag these patients’. They moan about everything and I feel yes… you do sometimes get patients who put on, but … this puts me off.” (G13)

According to Lattavo (2014:141), nurses are responsible for the quality of health care. Nursing interventions of professional nurses should demonstrate quality care to the benefit of the patients and provide the best outcomes for the patients’ health. In the current study, participants indicated that a lack of quality care of professional nurses to patients was unacceptable and caused a lack of trust in those professional nurses.

Participants indicated that a caring characteristic is also expected from students. Students’ intention should be to help people. A good nurse enters nursing with the motivation to serve and help people in need. It was expressed that nursing students’ intention should not be for the remuneration, but the love and passion to care.

“I think to be a good nurse what you really need is the love for helping people. If you came to nursing for money or something, you will get bored and never help a patient and then you will not be a good nurse, properly.” (G8)

Professionalism includes components of caring, compassion, honour, accountability and integrity (Bhugra 2010:323-324). Openness, honesty, reliability and caring are attributes of trustworthiness for the role players. The attributes of trustworthiness are part of their personal and professional values. Professional values lay a foundation for professional behaviour.

According to Dinmohammadi, Peyrovi and Mehrdad (2013:29-30), professional socialisation is an interactive as well as a developmental process. Students are in a professional socialisation process, preparing for the role as a professional nurse. Professional socialisation reconstructs students’ roles and changes them personally through an ongoing process of life-long learning. During their basic education and training, students expect a proper foundation with quality teaching and learning.

4.6 THEME 4: EXPECTATIONS REGARDING QUALITY TEACHING AND