Medical Students' Perception of the Educational Environment at Al-Nahda College by using DREEM inventory

Abstract

Background: Educational environment encompasses everything that is found and occurs inside medical school. It affects students’ ability to achieve their academic goals, feelings of academic satisfaction, and well-being. Assessment of the educational environment is of paramount importance for stakeholders, administrators and educators in the academic field. The aim of this study was to measure student perceptions of the educational environment in a medical college in Sudan.Methods: This was an institutional-based cross-sectional study conducted in Al-Nahda College, Khartoum, Sudan, between January and February 2018 with a sample of 634 medical students (56.9% male; pre-clinical (83.9%) and clinical (16.1%) students). The Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was used as a survey tool. Overall DREEM score was compared with students’ academic levels by using one-way ANOVA after Tukey’s test. Students’ gender, academic levels and nationality were used as independent variables determining the overall DREEM score by using multivariate analysis. Student’s t-test was used to compare the overall scores among all students based on gender and academic levels (clinical and pre-clinical).Results: The overall mean (SD) DREEM score in this study was 130 (34.2), which indicates a more positive educational environment than negative. Student perception of teachers, academic self-perception, perception of atmosphere and social self-perception was positive. However, perception of learning was negative. Female students had a significantly higher mean (SD) overall DREEM score than males [136 (31.5) vs. 129 (35.5); P=0.008]. There was no significant difference in overall DREEM score between pre-clinical and clinical students [132 (33.3) vs. 132 (38.3); P= 0.946]. Females scored higher than males in the subclasses regarding students’ perception of teachers, academic self-perception and social self-perception [28.8 (7.8) vs. 27.1 (8.5); P= 0.024]; [22.2 (5.6) vs. 21.0 (7.2); P= 0.017]; [19.8 (4.9) vs. 18.8 (5.4); P= 0.019], respectively. Univariate analysis showed that student gender significantly determines the overall DREEM score [Beta± SE; P-value].Conclusions: The educational environment is generally perceived as positive in Al-Nahda College. Perception of learning was the only sub-scale regarded as negative. Females perceived the educational environment more positively than males.