Psychometric properties of the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure in an Iranian hospital setting

Abstract

Background

Students’ perceptions of the educational environment are an important construct in assessing and enhancing the quality of medical training programs. Reliable and valid measurement, however, can be problematic – especially as instruments developed and tested in one culture are translated for use in another.

Materials and method

This study sought to explore the psychometric properties of the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) for use in an Iranian hospital training setting. We translated the instrument into Persian and ensured its content validity by back translation and expert review prior to administering it to 127 residents of Urmia University of Medical Science.

Results

Overall internal consistency of the translated measure was good (a=0.94). Principal components analysis revealed five factors accounting for 52.8% of the variance.

Conclusion

The Persian version of the PHEEM appears to be a reliable and potentially valid instrument for use in Iranian medical schools and may find favor in evaluating the educational environments of residency programs nationwide.

• education environment
• postgraduate
• evaluation
• psychometrics

Acknowledgements

This research paper would not have been possible without the support of Ms. Sue Roff. The authors wish to express their appreciation to her valuable comments.

Conflict of interests and funding

This study is based on the MSc dissertation of the first author. The authors declare no conflict of interests.