Students’ Perception Of The Educational Environment Of The Medical School In University Of Calabar, Nigeria.

Abstract

Background: Medical students’ learning environment is known to impact the quality of graduating doctors. It is therefore important that such environments are periodically evaluated inorder to identify and address factors that may impede the quality of learning and its outcome. This research was aimed at evaluating medical students’ perception of their educational environment

Method: This study was an observational crosssectional study involving 445 medical and dental students of the University of Calabar. The Dundee Ready Education Environment (DREEM)
questionnaire which is made of 5 sub-domains was administered and completed by students in their 2" to 6 year of study during 2015/2016 academic session. The mean global score (MGS) and each
domain scores were determined statistically. The mean scores of the domains in each age group and student’s year of study were compared using ANOVA. The level of statistical significance was fixed at p<0.05.

Results: The MGS of the students’ perception of learning was 57.2% which is more positive than negative perception. The Students Perception of Atmosphere i.e. SPA (45.2%) and Students’ Social
Self Perception i.e. SSSP (46.8%) had the lowest mean domain scores. Factors responsible for the low scores include students being tense during lectures, and poor social support systems for those that get stressed.

Conclusion: We conclude that the MGS in this students’ population could be improved by addressing weaknesses in the SPA and SSSP domains. Effective support system for students who are stressed during study will help in this regard.