Student perception of the educational environment in regular and bridging nursing programs in Saudi Arabia using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure

摘要

BACKGROUND: Taibah University offers regular nursing (RNP) and nursing bridging (NBP) bachelor programs.?We evaluated student perception of the learning environment as one means of quality assurance. OBJECTIVES: To assess nursing student perception of their educational environment, to compare the perceptions?of regular and bridging students, and to compare the perceptions of students in the old and new?curricula. DESIGN: Cross-sectional survey. SETTING: College of Nursing at Taibah University, Madinah, Saudi Arabia. PATIENTS AND METHODS: The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) instrument was?distributed to over 714 nursing students to assess perception of the educational environment. Independent?samples t test and Pearson’s chi square were used to compare the programs and curricula. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The DREEM inventory score. RESULTS: Of 714 students, 271 (38%) were RNP students and 443 (62%) were NBP students. The mean?(standard deviation) DREEM score was 111 (25). No significant differences were observed between the programs?except for the domain “academic self-perceptions” being higher in RNP students ( P .05). CONCLUSION: Nursing students generally perceived their learning environment as more positive than?negative. Regular students were more positive than bridging students. Students who experienced the new?curriculum were more positive towards learning. LIMITATIONS: The cross-sectional design and unequal gender and study level distributions may limit generalizability?of the results. Longitudinal, large-scale studies with more even distributions of participant characteristics are needed.