Osteopathic student satisfaction and preparedness to practice: A comparative study

Background: Osteopathy is now taught across the world, but each school has different teaching and learning strategies that may influence the preparedness of students for practice in different ways. Objective: To investigate levels of the satisfaction with the learning environment and the preparedness to practise from the perspective of osteopathic students. The study compares full-time schools in three different countries to analyse relationships between learning environment and preparedness. Method: A web-based questionnaire using a five-point Likert scale (strongly agree, agree, uncertain, disagree, strongly disagree) was sent by e-mail to all final year students of the British School of Osteopathy (BSO-UK), Accademia Italiana Osteopatia Tradizionale (AIOT-Italy) and Centre Europeen d'Enseignement Superieur de l'Osteopathie (CEESO-France). Results: The response rate was 58% for the BSO (n = 51), 100% for the AIOT (n = 12) and 80% for the CEESO (n = 63). The AIOT students perceived a better learning environment than CEESO and BSO students, while CEESO students felt more prepared than AIOT and BSO students. Statistically significant associations were found between learning environment and preparedness. Conclusion: Small classes may be partly responsible for the perception of a better Learning environment. This study also highlighted that the learning environment may be partly responsible for the perceived differences in preparedness. (C) 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.