Perceptions of postgraduate trainees in paediatrics on the educational environment at Lady Ridgeway Children’s Hospital Colombo

Introduction: The importance of the educational environment /climate is well recognised and believed to affect not only academic progress but also professional behaviour and career commitment. This paper describes the perceptions of postgraduates preparing to sit their exit examination in general paediatrics at Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH). This is an important training centre because all paediatricians–in-training in Sri Lanka compulsorily undergo one year of training at this hospital.

Objective: To evaluate the perception of postgraduate trainees on the learning environment at LRH

Study design: A cross-sectional, descriptive study

Study sample: Trainees who had undergone nine or more months of training at LRH but had not yet sat the end of course examination

Method: Ethical approval was obtained from Ethics Review Committee of Faculty of Medicine Colombo. This study was carried out in 2009–2010 using the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure, a validated tool for evaluating an educational environment/climate. Trainees were asked to fill in the 50 statement inventory by responding anonymously on a 5 point Likert-type scoring scale. The instrument measured the personal, interpersonal and organizational domains of their own learning situations in five important aspects of education: perception of learning, perception of course organizers / teachers, perception of atmosphere, academic self-perception and social self-perception.

Results: Number of respondents was 46. Response rate was over 95%. Overall mean score was 104

(range 78-158). In the individual subsets academic self-perception and perception of teachers / course organizers were ‘more positive than negative’ in the majority. Perception of course organizers was viewed negatively by one fifth (21%). Social self perception scored the lowest. Sixty seven percent thought with regard to their personal social lives they were in an environment that was “not nice” or “miserable”.

Conclusions: Majority of postgraduate trainees perceived the learning environment at LRH positively but 67% had a negative perception regarding their personal social lives.

(Key words: Perceptions; postgraduate trainees in paediatrics; Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure; DREEM; Lady Ridgeway Hospital, Colombo)

Sri Lanka Journal of Child Health, 2014; 43(1): 20-22

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/sljch.v43i1.6656