Assessing the Educational Environment of Mashhad Nursing and Midwifery School from the Viewpoints of Faculty Members

Abstract

<strong>Background:</strong> The educational environment has a great impact on learners' success, satisfaction, personal well-being, progress, and their career choices. It is worth noting that inappropriate environments are supposed to be costly and financially negative. Evaluation of the educational environment is the best indicator for achieving high quality educational goals that analyze the educational activities in the academic system, so that it can provide logical and standard results. The purpose of this study was to determine the educational environment of Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery from the viewpoints of faculty members and educational professors, as well as to introduce an appropriate questionnaire to evaluate the educational environment from the teachers' point of view.<br /> <strong>Methods:</strong> This is a cross-sectional, descriptive study. The study population was selected through census which included all teaching professors of Mashhad School of Nursing and Midwifery in year 2019 using demographic information questionnaire and Assessment of Medical Education Environment by Teachers questionnaire. For validity and reliability of questionnares, 50 Questions and six dimensions of teachers' perceptions of education, learning activities, students, learning environment, collaborative environment and self-professionalism were used. Stata software was used for data analysis. Descriptive statistics including frequency, mean, and standard deviation were used to describe the collected data. Also, Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used.<br /> <strong>Results</strong>: The mean score of faculty members and teachers' views on the educational environment was 118/59±20/47 out of 200 that devoted the lowest and highest averages, respectively, to the perception of collaborative space and perception of education.<br /> <strong>Conclusion:</strong> The results showed that the faculty members evaluated the educational environment in the faculty more positively. Also using the AMEET questionnaire could be very helpful in the process of identifying the learning environment accurately. Furthermore, examining the educational environment and more careful plannings seem necessary to improve the educational situation.