Student nurses' perceptions of their educational environment at a school of nursing in Western Cape province, South Africa: A cross-sectional study

When nursing education becomes political: Norm-critical perspectives in a campus-based clinical learning environment

Nursing education is in the process of incorporating critical thinking, social justice, and health inequality perspectives into educational structures, aspiring to help nursing students develop into professional nurses prepared to provide equal care. Norm criticism is a pedagogical philosophy that promotes social justice. This qualitative case study aimed to gain an understanding of and elaborate on an educational development initiative in which norm criticism was incorporated into the composition of a new campus-based clinical learning environment for nursing education. By analyzing documents and interviews with the help of reflexive thematic analysis three themes were generated: "Intention to educate beyond nursing education," "Educating in alliance with society," and "The educative ambiguity of the Clinical Learning Centre." The case study indicates that the incorporation of norm criticism into a campus-based clinical learning environment may encourage nursing students to evolve social skills for nursing practice that support health equality within healthcare. By collaborating with society, nursing education can considerably improve its educational frameworks in alignment with societal demands. However, the inclusion of norm criticism in a setting such as a campus-based clinical learning environment entails a clash with established institutionalized norms and being perceived as too proximate to politics.

Home Away from Home: How Undergraduate and Graduate Students Experience Space and Place in a new Health Sciences Building

Buildings contribute in crucial ways to how students experience learning spaces. Four schools within a faculty (nursing, nutrition, occupational and public health, and midwifery) moved into a new Health Sciences building Fall of 2019. This new building created a unique opportunity to explore the intersection between higher education and learning space design, informed by concepts of space and place, and students' profession specific and interprofessional learning experiences in a new Health Sciences building. A qualitative descriptive design was used. All undergraduate and graduate students within the four schools were invited to participate. Focus groups were undertaken to gain a rich understanding of students' experiences and views of their space and place of learning. Data collection involved focus group data from profession specific participant users and interprofessional participant users. Inductive thematic analysis of focus group transcripts generated an initial coding scheme, key themes, and data patterns. Codes were sorted into categories and then organized into meaningful clusters. A building planning development project document relating to the vision, intentions, design, and planning for the new building provided content from which to view the study findings. The study data contributed to the conversation about space and place and its influence on higher learning within specific intraprofessional and interprofessional student groups and provided insight into the process of actualizing a vision for a new learning space and the resultant experiences and perceptions of students within that space/place.

Nurse students' perception of the academic learning environment in Tunisian institutes of nursing sciences: A multisite cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

A learning environment is an important determinant of students' learning behaviours, professional competencies, and academic performances. It is also an essential indicator of the quality of teaching programmes. To date, there is not a Tunisian study, that analysed nurse students' perceptions of the educational environment.

AIMS

This study aimed to assess the perception of Tunisian higher nursing institutes students regarding the quality of the learning environment, and identify the factors associated with it.

DESIGN

Multi-site cross-sectional survey.

SETTING

Five universities of nursing sciences in Tunisia.

PARTICIPANTS

Undergraduate nursing students (n = 736).

METHODS

A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted during the academic year 2019-2020. The Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was used to describe the students' perceptions of the learning environment. The participants were recruited using a convenience sampling method. Statistical analyses were performed using SPSS version 20. One-way analysis of variance and t-test were used to compare the DREEM scores and socio-demographic/academic characteristics. A p-value of less than 0.05 was considered significant.

RESULTS

The mean overall DREEM score was 110.92 ± 20.55, indicating a positive perception of the learning environment. The year of study was significantly associated with total DREEM scores, with first-year students scoring higher than third- and second-year students (p = 0.035). The perception of the learning environment varied significantly among the five institutes (p < 10^-3). Demotivated atmosphere, lack of a support system, poor timetable organisation, and teacher-centred learning were revealed as problematic areas that needed improvement (individual score < 2). Our adapted version of the DREEM obtained acceptable internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.881).

CONCLUSIONS

The study reported positive perceptions of the students regarding their academic learning environment. However, the DREEM scores reflected a traditional learning environment. It is essential to re-engineer the curriculum and shift the teaching paradigm towards 'student-centred curriculum' to enhance both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the learning environment.