Perception of Medical Students Regarding Educational Environment in a Public Sector Medical College: A Cross-Sectional Survey Using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) Questionnaire

Abstract

The primary success of educational environment heavily depends upon benefits to learners and this further facilitates the learning processing. The most commonly used tool, to measure it, is Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM). Objective: This study was designed to evaluate the perceptions of medical students in pre-clinical years about educational environment in a public sector medical college of Pakistan and to compare the DREEM scores with previous published scores. Material and Methods: The DREEM questionnaire was conducted on undergraduate medical students (n=300) of Sheikh Zayed Medical College, Rahim Yar Khan, during the month of June 2015. Results: Two eighty-six (n=286) of the 300 students (95.33%) completed the questionnaire. Analysisof these subjected indicated a total mean score of 113.68. Mean for students’ perception of learning was 26.65±10.235, mean for students’ perceptions of teachers was 26.63±10.177. On the other hands, the mean scores for students’ academic self-perception, students’ perception of the atmosphere, and students’ social self-perception were 17.17±6.73, 26.89±10.89, and 16.34±6.70, respectively. Conclusion: Although DREEM scores showed improvement from previously published scores of same medical college, it also highlighted the areas needing further improvement.