Medical Student’s Perception of Educational Environment

Abstract

Introduction: The importance of educational environment in any medical institute cannot be ignored. Medical students should be provided a healthy environment so as to maximize their learning. Also understanding their perception about the educational environment can be used tactfully to evaluate and address the deficiencies and to make necessary changes required accordingly. Aims & Objectives: To assess students’ perception regarding educational environment in a medical college of Lahore. Place and duration of study: This cross-sectional study was conducted from September 2019- December 2019 in CMH Lahore Medical College. Material & Methods: 450 students of M.B.B.S from first year to final year (90 students / year) were included by simple random method after taking written informed consent. DREEM questionnaire was used having 5 subscales including students’ perception of learning (PoL), perception of Teachers (PoT), students’ academic self-perception (ASP), students’ perception of atmosphere (PoA) and students ‘self-perceptions (SSP). Statistical analysis was performed using SPSS version 22 .Data was presented as mean ±s.d, normality assessed with Shapiro -Wilk’s test followed by Spearman’s correlation analysis. Results: Reliability of the scale was found to be 96%, indicative of excellent consistency of the responses provided by students. Mean scores of subscales from both male and female students; PoL, PoT, ASP, PoA and SSP were found as 29.89±7.36, 28.07±7.21, 19.50±5.17, 28.78±7.36 & 16.97±4.55 respectively. Total DREEM score came out to be 123.21+29.48. Conclusion: It is concluded that students perceived a positive learning environment in this medical college’s experience.