Development Strategies in Medical Education

Introduction: The universal Changes in medical education have paid more attention to the importance of students' perception of their educational environment. The aim of this research was to measure the midwifery students’ awareness of their learning environment at Islamic Azad University Kazerun branch.

Methods: This was a cross-sectional study in which 104 midwifery students from Islamic Azad University Kazerun branch participated. Data collection instrument was DREEM (Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure). This standard questionnaire includes 50 items in five domains: students' perception of learning, teachers, learning environment along with academic and social self-perception. The obtained data was analyzed using SPSS 20.

Results: The findings showed that the total mean of DREEM score was 127.7 out of 200 which represents an average awareness of educational environment. The highest DREEM mean score was 22.8 out of 32 (69.6%) for students' academic self-perception and the lowest mean score was 17.11 out of 28 (61.1%) for students' social self-perception.Intern students were more satisfied with their learning environments than the students of theory courses (P=0.001).

Conclusion: The school’s educational environment was generally perceived positively by the students, yet specific areas were also identified which needed to be improved. It is essential for managers to make a greater effort to create an appropriate educational environment in order to provide and maintain high quality learning environments for students.