Medical Students' Perception of the Educational Environment at Al-Nahda College, 2018

Abstract

Abstract Educational environment encompasses everything that are found and occurs inside the school of Medicine. It affects the students’ ability to achieve their academic goals, feeling of academic satisfaction and well-being. Assessment of the educational environment of paramount-importance for all stake-holder, administrators and educators in the academic field. Therefore, this study was conducted in Al-Nahda College to measure the student perceptiontowardstheeducationalenvironmentinthecollege,inordertoprovideabaseline information about the educational environment to explore areas that need more strengthening and others that need to besustained. Methods This is an institutional based cross-sectional study conducted in Al-Nahda University College between January and February 2018. Study population were 634 medical students (1styear- 5th year). Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) questionnaire was used as a survey tool for this study. Students’ responses were entered to the computer and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version24 (SPSS Inc. Chicago, IL, USA). Data were displayed as mean (SD) or number(%). Results A (83.9%) pre-clinical and (16.1%) clinical stage participated in this study from all academic levels. Three hundred and sixty (56.9%) were male students, while the rest were female(43.1%).TheoverallDREEMscoreinthisstudyis130(34.2),whichindicatesmore positiveeducationalenvironmentthannegative.Likewise,students’perceptionforteachers, Students’ academic self-perception, Students’ perception of atmosphere and Students’ socialself-perception.However,students’perceptionforlearningshowsnegativeindicator. Students’ female gender have significantly higher mean (SD) overall DREEM score than male students [136 (31.5) Vs. 129 (35.5);P= 0.008], respectively. Female scored higher than male in subclass students’ perception for teachers, Students’ academic self-perception andStudents’socialself-perception,[28.8(7.8)Vs.27.1(8.5);P=0.024];[22.2(5.6)Vs. 21.0(7.2);P=0.017];[19.8(4.9)Vs.18.8(5.4);P=0.019],respectively.Theforeign students perceived the overall educational environment better than Sudanese students [135.6(31.7) Vs. 131.3 (34.8);P=0.049]. Conclusion The educational environment is perceived positive in Al-Nahda College. Four out of five inventorysubscalewereperceivedpositive,whileonlystudents’perceptionoflearningsub- scale was perceived negative. Female students and non-Sudanese students perceived the educational environment better than the male students and Sudanese students. The perception of clinical students did not differ from that of pre-clinicalstudents. Recommendation 1. Enhance faculty trainingprograms. 2. Modify the curriculum to become more studentscentered. 3. Sustain the extra-curricular activity for thestudents. 4. Reassess the educational environment after 2 years to assess the impact of the intervention taken by theadministration.