Abstract
BackgroundHappiness, a subjective judgment about one’s quality of life, is influenced by environmental factors and should be considered as an important goal of medical education, which should support each learner’s development as a person as well as a professional. However, although several studies have reported on the correlation between Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) scores and students’ academic achievement, few have investigated the relationship between DREEM scores and students’ subjective happiness. This study examined different perceptions of the educational environment between phases of the curriculum and determined which DREEM subscales affect the overall level of happiness.MethodsWe used the Korean version of the DREEM questionnaire and a single item measure of happiness on a scale of 0 to 10. First we analyzed student perceptions of the educational environment according to their demographic characteristics using independent sample t-tests and one-way analysis of variance. A multiple regression analysis was performed to reveal which subscales affect the overall level of happiness while controlling for grade point average (GPA) and other demographic characteristics.ResultsThe subjects were 239 medical school students across all stages of the curriculum. The students’ overall perception was more positive for the educational environment during Phase 3 (clerkship) than Phase 1 (pre-medical). Among the DREEM subscales, this difference was especially prominent in Students’ Perception of Learning and Students’ Academic Self-Perceptions. In contrast, no difference in the subjective perception of happiness was found between phases. The effect of GPA on happiness became insignificant under the control of other variables, but the influence of the Students’ Social Self-Perceptions (SSSP) subscale remained significant.ConclusionsThe students’ overall perception of the educational environment was more positive during the clerkship period than in the pre-medical period. Based on our finding that the SSSP correlates significantly with subjective happiness, we suggest that institutions promote not only students’ academic development but also their happiness by fostering an appropriate educational environment.
Highlights
Happiness, a subjective judgment about one’s quality of life, is influenced by environmental factors and should be considered as an important goal of medical education, which should support each learner’s development as a person as well as a professional
To determine which subscales of Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM) affected the overall level of happiness, we investigated the relationship between the subscales and happiness while controlling for grade point average (GPA) and other demographic characteristics
The 229 students (81.5%) who provided their student ID number with the survey and 52 students who did not respond to the survey showed no significant difference in gender (p = 0.870) or previous GPA (p = 0.994)
Summary
A subjective judgment about one’s quality of life, is influenced by environmental factors and should be considered as an important goal of medical education, which should support each learner’s development as a person as well as a professional. Given that all students manage multiple identities [11], medical education has to help learners integrate their personal and professional development [4, 12]. Personal development often holds only a secondary position in the curriculum [13] or competency domain [14]. In this context, it has been claimed that medical education should work to generate doctors who are both good and happy, rather than one to the exclusion of the other [15]
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