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The clinical workplace plays an important role in preparing students for future practice as physicians. [1] Advances in medical education have led to the establishment of skills laboratories as places for learning clinical skills using simulation-based medical education. However, realpatient encounters create authenticity in learning, because complaints are articulated better and physical signs are shown, with deeper and broader insight by real patients. [2] Contemporary medical practice has evolved over time, with changes in health system expectations and clinical practice requirements, such as patient numbers and demographics and expectations of patients and employers. [3] While these changes are particularly obvious in developed countries, the advent of health-related technologies and increased litigation means this trend is rapidly catching up in developing countries, including Africa. All these changes have implications for training medical students to provide quality healthcare services on graduation. Concerns have been raised by employers, lecturers and regulators of medical graduates in Uganda and elsewhere that graduate competencies and population health needs are mismatched. [4,5] For example, the Uganda Medical and Dental Practitioners Council (UMDPC) report of 2017/2018 describes cases of professional incompetence and unprofessionalism as some of the common offences handled by its ethics and disciplinary committee. [5] These offences may be an indication that the changes in health professions education have not kept pace with healthcare delivery expectations. Work and learning are interdependent, and understanding the perceptions and experiences of learners regarding the workplace as a learning environment may be an initial step in identifying the factors responsible for the mismatch between medical education and health system expectations. [6] Studies assessing student perceptions of the learning environment using the Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire have been done in Nigeria, South Africa (SA), Turkey, Australia and the UK. The questionnaire comprises 50 items, divided into five separate domains that can be analysed individually. [7][8][9][10] No such study has ever been done in Uganda, thus creating an information gap and a need to evaluate the learning environment with a view to optimising learning in the workplace.

Sometimes universities in general are criticised because of impersonal campus environments, or "academic incivility". However, research Background and contextThe University of the Free State (UFS) in Bloemfontein, South Africa (SA), endeavours to be recognised as an excellent institution in two of its performance areas, namely (i) the academic project, which focuses on excellence in teaching, learning and research, and (ii) the human project, with its focus on reconciliation and social justice (UFS Integrated Report, 2013). This paper is situated within the human project, which is located mainly in the Institute for Reconciliation and Social Justice (IRSJ) at the UFS. The aim of the IRSJ is to "cultivate humanity as a counterstrategy to the disrespect and violence that pervade human relations and erode human dignity" (IRSJ, 2013).In particular, this paper focuses on the School of Medicine (SoM) at the UFS and is based on my 15 years of experience as a lecturer, student academic support and development practitioner, tutor programme coordinator in the in the SoM, researcher in the field of higher and medical education and head of one of the student residences at the UFS. Within the different roles and responsibilities in these positions, I have the opportunity to interact and engage with students from diverse backgrounds. During these interactions and engagements, I have gained rich information on the many challenges that students face in academic environments. In addition, being from a similar social and school background as some of the students, I have realised the significance of adopting a humanistic pedagogy to advance and integrate humane values in a medical school environment, which is sometimes perceived as being inhumane.

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