Survey of Midwifery Students' Perception of the Educational Environment Based on DREEM Model at Islamic Azad University of Mashhad in the Academic Year 2014

Introduction: The educational environment is one of the fundamental considerations that affect the quality and effectiveness of an education. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the educational environment in general and to compare the environment before and during clinical education.

Methods: This descriptive cross-sectional study was performed on 138 midwifery students in 2014. The data was randomly collected from among the students based on their "student number." This study used the Persian version of the DREEM questionnaire, and the questionnaires were filled out anonymously. The range of the scores is 0-200. The data were analyzed statistically with SPSS software (version 20), by the use of a t-test and the significance level less than 0.5.

Results: In total, 138 students with an average age of 21.5±2 participated in this study. The general average score of the students was 114±23, which shows a positive perception. Findings indicate that 76.1% (N=138) of students believe that the educational environment needs to be developed and improved, and 23.9% (N=138) believe that there are more negative points of the educational setting than positive ones. There was no significant difference between the scores of 5 of the domains among the clinical and non-clinical students.

Conclusion: The findings in the present study reveal that the students have more positive than negative perceptions of the midwifery educational system. The weak points should be considered and new educational strategies should be implemented that lead to effective learning and training.