Nursing Students’ Perception of their Educational Environment

Abstract

Introduction: Educational environment has a significant impact on nursing students. Aim: The study aimed to assess nursing students' perception of their educational environment at the Faculty of Nursing, Ain Shams University. Design: Descriptive study design was used. Setting: This study was conducted at Faculty of Nursing Ain Shams University. Subjects: Stratified proportionate random sample of 261 nursing students from all academic years were included in the study. Tool of data collection: Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) was used to collect data for this study. Results: The study results revealed that, the total mean score of nursing students' perception of their educational environment was 137.68 out of 200 which indicates that the students‟ perception of the educational environment is more positive than negative. The mean scores of total students‟ perception subscales were 22.9±3.6/32 (71.6%) for students‟ academic self-perceptions, 19.5±3.3/28 (69.6%) for students‟ social self-perceptions, 30.6±4.4/44 (69.5%) for students‟ perceptions of teachers, 33.2±4.5/48 (69.2%) for students‟ perception of learning, and 31.2±4.8/48 (65%) for students‟ perception of atmosphere. There was a high statistical significance relation between total mean score perception of nursing students regarding their educational environment and their gender. Conclusion: All students perceived their learning environment positively. However, a few problematic areas of educational environment require enhancement. Recommendation: Faculty members and courses administrators develop, implement and evaluate suitable plan for improving the weak areas to ensure a high-quality educational environment.