Students' satisfaction with the nursing program studying at Tribhuvan university's institute of medicine, Nepal

Satisfaction is a psychological state that results from the confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations with reality. Student satisfaction involves the student's unique perception of the value of his/her educational experience during the degree program. Satisfaction is the key element and criterion used to evaluate and represent the level of customer pleasure, program quality, student achievement and program success.

The objectives of this study were to assess the satisfaction of nursing students with a nursing program.

A cross-sectional study was conducted on five constituent nursing campuses (TUs) from 8th Nov 2022 to 8th March 2023 to identify their level of satisfaction with the nursing program. Adopted and a modified version of the Nursing Student Satisfaction Scale (NSSS) were employed to assess students' satisfaction with the nursing program. Data were collected from 147 nursing students in their third year through the census method via a self-administered semi-structured questionnaire. Data analysis was performed via descriptive and inferential statistics.

The results of the study revealed that nearly three-fourths (74.1%) of the students' overall satisfaction with the Bachelor of Science with the nursing program was fair (mean score = 219.86). The highest mean level of satisfaction with the program subdomain was the curriculum (mean score = 44.73), where more than half (63.9%) of the students had a good level of satisfaction, and the lowest mean level of satisfaction was with theoretical education by faculty (mean score = 24.98), where nearly three-fourths (72.1%) of the students had a poor level of satisfaction. In other subdomains of the study, such as professional social interaction, clinical practice by the clinical guide, and the educational environment, nearly two-thirds (65.3%, 64.6%, 58.5%, and 69.4%) of the students, respectively, had fair levels, and resources and support had poor levels of satisfaction. More than one-fourth (34.7%) of the students' satisfaction with the evaluation system of the institute was fair.

The study indicated that students have a fair level of satisfaction with the nursing program, so continuous innovation and quality services on the nursing campus are necessary for students' optimum satisfaction.