Nursing and medical students’ perceptions of educational environment and their association with hostility dimensions

Dear Sir

The quality of learning environment and the satisfaction the students obtain from it is considered an important factor when determining the quality of studies. Regarding Greek Universities, research indicates that efforts should be done to increase the quality of the educational climate. Here we report the findings of a study about educational climate in Greece, the purpose of which was to analyze comparatively nursing and medical students’ perceptions of their educational environment and to identify some associations with hostility dimensions.

It was a cross-sectional survey using a standardized self-report scale. A convenience sample of 100 nursing and 100 medical students of one Nursing School and one Medical School was used. Fifty-seven male and 143 female students were included in the study. All students had already begun their clinical practice. The Greek versions of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) along with the HDHQ (Hostility and Direction of Hostility Questionnaire) were applied. Statistical significance was set at p = 0.05. The t-test and the Spearman correlation were applied.

The best students’ perceptions were those regarding the academic ones (63.3%), the atmosphere (60.5%) and social life (59.5%), followed by the perception of learning (56.9%) and perceptions of teachers (56.9%). Nursing students’ perceptions surpassed those of their medical counterparts in every DREEM subscale (p < 0.001). Acting-out hostility, paranoid hostility and guilt were negatively and statistically significantly correlated with social-self perception (p < 0.05). Self-criticism and guilt were negatively correlated with the perception of teachers, while the total DREEM score was negatively associated with total HDHQ score (p < 0.05). Total score of hostility (21.5 ± 7.3) was above the internationally acceptable levels

Learning and teachers’ perceptions are rated higher in other studies, while in Greece these subscales exhibit the worst score. Special attention should be given to students’ perceptions of teachers, as it may seriously affect students’ psychological health. The importance of keeping a satisfactory level of social life is depicted on the correlation of acting-out hostility and paranoid hostility with poorer social life. The longer duration of studies in medical schools may account for the lower DREEM score, since students’ perceptions of educational climate fade as they progress through school years.

Students’ perception of educational climate in Greece is far from satisfactory and a careful surveillance of educational climate should be a priority at a local national level. Deterioration of the educational climate might favor hostility and disruption of social cohesiveness in the future.