Measuring Cross-Cultural Perception of Educational Environment among Postgraduates by Using Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) Inventory

Background: A postgraduate training program should be focused on positive and healthy educational environment. Postgraduate trainees suffer invariably during their training when the hospital educational environment is stressful. It is, therefore very important to assess the training environment of an institute as a part of good educational practice.

Aims: The aim of this study is assess and compare the clinical learning environment in the postgraduate training programs in Dubai and Sialkot. We also measure the perception of autonomy, the perception of teaching, and the perception of social support to identify more specific weaknesses and strengths in an educational environment. We demonstrate the appropriate steps, focusing on the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM).

Methods: PHEEM questionnaire was completed by 95 postgraduate residents in an observational, quantitative study involving a cross sectional survey of the perception of attitudes and behavior in postgraduate training programs in Dubai (UAE) and Sialkot (Pakistan).

Results: We used “IBM SPSS STATISTICS 21” software for data analysis. The results were analyzed and compared between postgraduate residents from Dubai and Sialkot. The total PHEEM score we achieved in our study is 104.8. The comparative scores achieved between Dubai and Sialkot residents by three domains of PHEEM inventory include Perception of role autonomy (34.44/35.85), Perception of teaching (36.60/40.65), and Perception of social support (24.42/24.42) respectively. There is no statistically significant association between PG year of training and country of training but there is statistically significant association between gender and country of training.

Conclusion: PHEEM is a simple, multidimensional, valid and highly reliable instrument measuring the educational environment among postgraduates working in different cultures and clinical disciplines. There are more positive than negative as far as the learning environment is concerned in both Dubai and Sialkot; however, there is room for improvement. Perception of social support and role autonomy is identical in Dubai and Sialkot. But teaching is better in Sialkot, attributed mainly to pediatric residency.