PERCEPTION OF FOURTH-YEAR MEDICAL STUDENTS REGARDING THEIR EDUCATIONAL ENVIRONMENT IN THE PEDIATRIC UNIT OF KHYBER TEACHING HOSPITAL

Abstract

Objectives: The study aimed to assess the students’ perception of the educational environment in the pediatric unit of Khyber teaching hospital using Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measures (DREEM). Material and Methods: This cross-sectional, questionnaire-based study was conducted at the Department of Child Health Khyber Teaching Hospital Peshawar, Pakistan, from May to November 2019. The sample size included 220 students fourth-year students. The study instrument was the DREEM questionnaire, which has 50 items that assess five do­mains. There are 50 items with 5 subscales and the maximum score is 200.  Descriptive statistics were used to calculate the mean and standard deviation of the DREEM and the five domains Results: Of the 220 Students, 100 completed the questionnaire, resulting in a response rate of 45%. The total DREEM score was 113.14/200 (56.57%). The results showed that student’s perception of their learning environment was 27.31/48 (56.89%), the perception of teachers was 25.45/44 (57.84%), self-perception of their academics was 18.97/32 (59.28%), their perception of the atmosphere was 27.7/48 (57.7%), and social self-perception was 13.7/28 (48.96%). Conclusion: The study found that the atmosphere in the pediatric ward of Khyber Teaching Hospital was perceived positively by the students. However, the total DREEM score and points in the subdomains did not fall in the excellent category and remained one step below the highest rank. Therefore, there is room for improvement in the educational climate at the pediatric ward of Khyber Teaching Hospital. Keywords: Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measures (DREEM), educational environment measures.