Caring is a principal component of nursing. In nursing education caring is being reconceptualized, raising the question of how nurses develop caring in their profession. However, several problematic issues are embedded in this question. Two most common issues are that theories of caring are various, but lack a congruent connection between theory and practice and that caring is a component of the conceptual framework of nursing curricula, rarely as a fundamental ideology in nursing education.

A significant problem exists in nursing education in that, while the concept of caring is widely recognized in the existing literature on nurse-client relationship in the clinical practice context, examination of nurse educators' views of caring in their academic culture is lacking. The purpose of this study was to explore with nurse educators their meanings and behaviors of caring in order to understand a holistic view of caring in nursing.

Through ethnography, three nurse educators of a baccalaureate nursing program shared their meanings of caring at a personal and professional level. Their expressions of caring, explicit and implicit were essential to the understanding of the tacit nature of caring. Themes emerged that were related to the nurse educators' philosophical views, early childhood influences, development and expressions of their unique style of teaching caring. Also the relationship between the nurse educators' views of caring in education and that of the administration emerged as a theme.

Although, all three nurse educators viewed caring from a humanistic framework, each approached caring from a complex and unique perspective. Diversity dominated their definition of caring and created serious implications for education and practice. Future studies on meanings of caring with larger samples of nurse educators in their academic cultures is critical for the development of understanding caring in nursing.