Comparison of the perception of the educational atmosphere by nursing students in a Chilean university

Background: Learning is situated within an environment, cannot be dissociated from the context in which it occurs and impacts upon the results of student learning, obtaining better results in favorably perceived environments. The elements that mostly affect that perception are the curricular contents, teaching methodologies, and the handling of the education atmosphere. These elements, complex and dynamic, are perceived differently according to the level of the career. Some studies establish that the perception improves as the student progresses in the career, while others show the opposite. Objectives: Measure the perception of nursing students of the education atmosphere and compare the differences among the distinct levels of the career. Design: This was a longitudinal prospective study.Settings and Participants. The study was conducted with nursing students from the class of 2011 at Universidad de los Andes, Santiago-Chile. Sixty-one students complied with inclusion criteria and were surveyed in second (n = 55), third (n = 51), and fourth (n = 34) years, during 2012, 2013, and 2014, respectively. Methods: The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure questionnaire was applied. The STATA 10 program was used for analysis and the one way ANOVA was use to compare the results. Results: The average perception of the education atmosphere was 133/200, obtaining more positive aspects than negative ones. Students improve their perception as they advance in the career. The three measurements repeat five items as weaknesses and 12 as strengths. Conclusions: It is convenient to bear in mind the difficulties of students to reconcile the clinical experiences with the theoretical classes on campus by continuous assessing the academic load and the demands made by each professor. Some strategies would include promoting professors' greater closeness with the students, considering travel times in the academic programming, as well as applying the basic theoretical contents in real clinical cases to give them relevance.