Perception of Baccalaureate Nursing Students Towards Their Academic & Clinical Environment

Learning environment in nursing has been defined as everything that is happening in the classroom and clinical. The quality of an educational environment is indicative of the effectiveness of an educational programme on student learning, motivation and learning outcomes. The present study aimed to determine the perception of baccalaureate nursing students towards their educational environment. In this descriptive study 105 undergraduate nursing students at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) Rishikesh, Uttarakhand were enrolled using simple random sampling technique. The perceptions of nursing students to their educational environment were measured by using Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) and Clinical Learning Environment Inventory (CLEI). Appropriate descriptive & inferential statistics was applied to compute the results. The DREEM mean score (127±28.75) indicated more positive perception of students towards their academic environment. Students’ perception of teachers (p= 0.014), academic self-perception (p=0.001), and perception of atmosphere (p=0.003) was found to be significantly associated with year of study. Similarly, year of study was found significantly associated with personalisation (p= 0.007), task orientation (p=0.013), innovation (p=0.002), individualisation (p=0.007) and student satisfaction (p=0.007) to clinical environment and learning. Work place assessment is crucial in improving the clinical teaching among nursing students.