Clinical Application of Biochemistry Topics from Nursing Students’ Point of View

Programs and curriculum topics are important factors improving the quality of higher education and making attitudes, knowledge, and skills of graduates adaptable with the latest scientific achievements and their professional needs. Previous studies have shown a mismatch between educational objectives and professional needs of nursing graduates, which have been mainly related to the factors such as curriculum, and clinical facilities. This descriptive study was performed in the academic year of 2012-13 at the school of nursing in Mashhad. A total of 60 nursing students participated in the study. Data collection was done by a researcher-made questionnaire. Validity of the questionnaire was verified by examining experts and its reliability was confirmed through test-retest (score of 0. 85).       Forty percent of students considered Biochemistry a highly important topic. Fifty percent of respondents stated that biochemistry is moderately related to their future professional needs and also to the other topics in nursing curriculum. Students stated that they agree with revising the biochemistry curriculum toward more applicability and more clinically relevant topics (43% very highly, 36. 6% highly). Students feel insufficiency in Clinical Biochemistry topics during their training course (40% very highly, 33. 3% highly). Students mostly consider biochemistry course important, though, as indicated by the results, they are not satisfied with the topics of this course feeling less relationship between topics and their professional needs. The present study introduces the need of revising topics toward more applicability and clinicality. Key word: education, nursing, Biochemistry