Investigating nursing students' perceptions of the changes in a nursing curriculum by means of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) inventory: Results of a cluster analysis

The quality of the educational climate reflects the quality of the curriculum, teaching, and learning considerations and developing student outcomes as practitioners. The purpose of this study is to identify the differences in opinion of year one nursing students based on their perceptions of the elements operating in the educational environment in a nursing school in Singapore using the Singapore version of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) inventory. 49 nursing students during the 2006-2007 academic year completed a self-report questionnaire in two semesters. This study clearly demonstrated changes in students' perceptions of the new nursing curriculum and learning climate when adjustments were made to the curriculum involving workloads, positioning of modules, teaching policy and assessment expectations, including curriculum committee development and student representative input.