Perceptions of nursing students of educational environment at a private undergraduate school of nursing in Karachi

Objective: To assess educational environment at a nursing school. Methods: The cross-sectional survey was carried out from May to October 2016 at Aga Khan University School of Nursing and Midwifery, Karachi, using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure tool. The scores were obtained by merging five sub-scales of the inventory. The average scores of the scale and sub-scales were compared in terms of age, year of study, and living status using Mann-Whitney U test, and among years of study by Kruskal Wallis test. Results: Of the 442 students, 228(51.6%) had age below 20 years. Overall, 131(29.1%) subjects were in the first year, 152(33.8%) second year, 91(20.2%) third year and 76(16.9%) fourth year. The average Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure score was 129.92±19.97 with reliability of 88.9%. Students aged 20 years and less had more positive perceptions than students over 20 years (p<0.0001). Students living in hostel secured higher scores (p<0.0001). First year nursing students attained significant highest scores in all sub-scales compared to the rest (p<0.0001). Conclusion: Scores reveal better perception from younger nursing students, as well as those living in the hostel and those who were in their initial years of nursing education.