Comparison of students' perceptions of educational environment in traditional vs. accelerated second degree BSN programs.

BACKGROUND: Students' perceptions of their academic learning environment have been found to be related to their approaches to learning and learning outcomes. Educational environment is just beginning to be researched in nursing education with the vast majority of studies focusing on the clinical educational environment. Accelerated Bachelor of Science in Nursing (ABSN) programs for students who have obtained a bachelor degree are a popular nursing pedagogue. These programs are instituted on the belief that degreed students have the ability to be successful in a demanding program, are older, are adult learners and tend to be more motivated than their traditional counterparts. There is a paucity of research exploring the differences in student perceptions of the educational environment between the traditional and accelerated programs.

OBJECTIVE: Explore students' perceptions of the educational environment in the traditional and ABSN programs within an institution and determine any differences.

DESIGN: Comparative descriptive study.

SETTING: Private school of Nursing in the Southwest.

PARTICIPANTS: Convenience sample of 24 ABSN and 38 traditional graduating senior students.

METHODS: Invited students completed the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure through the online survey application Qualtrics. An independent t-test was used to compare the scores.

RESULTS: A total of 62 students completed the survey for an overall response rate of 57%. No statistical difference was found in students' perceptions of academic environment between the two groups on the total score. However, there was a statistically significant difference on the sub-domain pertaining to atmosphere and there were significant differences on 6 out of 50 individual items.

CONCLUSIONS: The results of this study indicate that, taken in its entirety, there was no significant difference in student perception of educational environment between the traditional and accelerated cohorts at this institution as measured by the DREEM tool. However, there was a significant difference between the two cohorts within the student perception of Atmosphere sub-domain and on seven individual items. The DREEM tool was found to be a reliable instrument to determine students' perceptions of educational environment.