Educational environment in nursing college of Nepal

Dear Sir

The educational environment in health care institutions has direct impact on academic achievement and practice. Thus, it is important to get feedback from students on how they perceive their educational environment. This study presents the evidence related to educational environment at College of Nursing, B P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences, Nepal, as perceived by the students of different academic years and levels of education. Identifying the learning environment will help the teachers to facilitate learning and plan a curriculum to achieve the learning outcomes (Pimparyon et al. 2000).

The study was conducted after the approval of ethical and research committees of the Institution during the academic year 2005–2006. A descriptive, cross-sectional research design was adopted for the study. The fifty-item Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM), developed by Roff et al. (1997), which measures different parameters of educational environment (teachers, teaching, academic self perception, atmosphere and social self perceptions) was administered to 188 nursing students—64 Bachelor of science (BSc) nursing students and 124 Certificate nursing students. Data was analysed by using descriptive (mean, percentage, frequencies and standard deviation) and inferential statistics (t-test and ANOVA appropriately). Total DREEM score obtained by the BSc nursing and Certificate nursing students was 104 and 123\200, respectively, which was significantly different (p < 0.001). There were also significant differences in several aspects of educational environment between different academic years within the same program.

The implications include the need for the creation of a supportive, creative and conducive environment, focusing on unsatisfactory elements to bring desirable changes in the educational environment to meet the challenges of health care profession.