Exploring the relationship between perceived educational environment and academic achievement among critical care nursing students

Objective: The integrated nursing educational environment remains to have a crucial influence on the student achievement, behaviors, satisfaction and success. The current study aimed to explore the relationship between perceived educational environment and academic achievement among critical care student nurses.Methods: Participants of this quantitative exploratory descriptive co relational study were 64 students selected conveniently from the students enrolled in Critical Care Nursing course at spring and fall semesters 2016/2017 in King Saud Bin Abdul-Aziz University. A self-reported questionnaire titled “Student Nurses’ Educational Environment Perception (SNEEP)” developed by the researcher to explore the relationship between perceived educational environment and academic achievement among critical care student nurses.Results: Students aged between 22 to 28 years old and half of them were single, while 58% of students had grade point average (GPA) between 2 to 3.49 and most students perceived their educational environment as more positive than negative, whereas the mean of their perception score was 138.58 ± 11.44. Finally, there was no statistical significant relationship between students’ academic achievement and their both clinical and educational environment perception.Conclusions: Despite the students perceived their clinical and educational environment as more positive than negative indicating their high level of satisfaction in most of areas of critical care nursing course, the current study revealed no significant correlation between students’ clinical and educational environment perception with their GPA. This necessitates the need for ongoing evaluation of learning environment for the same course and other courses to address any further correlation factors that may hinder the learning of students with unsatisfactory academic achievement.