Research proposal

Research Question: What is the perception of nursing students and the nursing faculty of quality of education and how does the class size affect the quality of education?

Problem Statement: The admittance of students to nursing programs has been constant over decades. As the demand for baccalaureate nurses increases, so has the demand of teachers. When there is a greater demand for nurses there is a call for more universities to admit more students to their programs. As the student to teacher ratio increases there is a potential threat to the quality of education as perceived by students and the faculty.

Statement of purpose: The purpose of this study is to compare the quality of education as perceived by nursing students, quality of education perceived by faculty, and the relationship of the two sets of perception. The study will also provide insight into how teachers feel the quality of education provided is increased or decreased based on the number of students that they are required to teach.

Hypothesis: This study will be a qualitative study. Because this is a qualitative study a hypothesis is not required.

Null hypothesis: The quality of education that a baccalaureate nursing student receives is not determined by the number of students that a teacher is required to teach per semester.