Educational environment of nursing undergraduates in University of Ruhuna: effect of gender

Abstract

A considerable increase in male admission into the nursing profession demands a better understanding of gender influences on nursing education and practice. This research explores how male and female nursing students perceive the new educational environment created by the curriculum introduced for B.Sc. Nursing Degree programme in the University of Ruhuna. Prospective study using the already validated Dundee Ready Education Environment (DREEM) questionnaire was administered to all B. Sc. Nursing undergraduates enrolled in academic years 2008/9 (first batch) and 2009/10 (second batch), respectively. The DREEM questionnaire, consists of 50 items each having a scoring range of 0-4 Likert type scale, was completed by 55 nursing students. Mean±SD DREEM scores were 112.0±15.6 and 106.90±1.54 for the male and female nursing undergraduates (p=0.22), respectively, indicating relative satisfaction with the perceived environment. The academic self-perceptions of male undergraduates fall more towards the positive side (mean score of 19.50±2.27) and that of females (mean score of 17.16±3.52; p=0.005) fall towards the negative side. The social self-perception of females of the first batch of nursing students was significantly low (mean score =13.65) when compared with that of females of the second batch of students (mean score =15.40; p=0.02). The male students of the second batch were having overall higher perception (mean score of 118.2) when compared with females of the same batch (mean score of 107.8; p=0.06). This study identifies the issues pertaining to the perception of learning and academic self-perception in the nursing programme. Further, use of DREEM as a monitoring tool would be useful to re-evaluate the environment for appropriate intervention.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jur.v1i1.6155 Journal of the University of Ruhuna 2013 1(1): 11-16