Medical students perception of learning environment evidence from Jimma University Medical Centre

Abstract

This study aims to assess medical students’ perception of the quality of the learning environment at Jimma University Medical Centre (JUMC), Ethiopia using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM). A cross-sectional survey design was applied to assess students’ perceptions during their clinical attachment wards in JUMC. The DREEM inventory consisted of five sub-domains such as student perception of learning (SPL), student perception of teacher (SPT), student academic self-perception (SAP), student perception of the atmosphere (SPA), and student social self-perception (SSSP) that administered to 323 undergraduate medical students. Descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA were computed using SPSS 20 to analyse the data. The overall DREEM mean score was found to be 111.35 and SD of 13.67 from the maximum score of 200. In this study, the overall DREEM mean score of female was significantly higher than the mean of their male counterparts. Despite the ANOVA result across years, first year clinical year I students had higher perception of learning environment as compared to senior batches. In general, the overall means score of students on the DREEM scale revealed that they perceive the learning environment more positively. However, some areas need to be revised across all five domains of the learning environment to make improvements.