Anesthesiology residents' perception of educational environment: comparison between different years of training.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To assess whether the year of residency in anesthesiology is associated with residents' overall perceptions of the learning environment and to evaluate the association between year of residency and each of the five domains of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM) survey. DESIGN Cross-sectional study. SETTING Residency program of anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic. SUBJECTS AND INTERVENTION Residents of anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic were invited to complete the DREEM questionnaire and a demographic survey. MEASUREMENTS We assessed whether year of residency was associated with the overall standardized DREEM questionnaire score using linear regression. We also assessed the associations between year of residency and each of the 5 DREEM questionnaire domains using separate linear regression models. RESULTS Of the 60 residents invited to complete the DREEM questionnaire, 49 (82%) completed it. There was no association between year of residency and overall DREEM score (P = .21), students' perception of teaching (P = .38), students' perceptions of teachers (P = .28), students' academic self-perceptions (P = .03), students' perceptions of atmosphere (P = .65), or students' social self-perceptions (P = .08). The primary outcome was assessed using a significance criterion of 0.05, whereas each secondary outcome was assessed using a significance criterion of 0.01 for secondary analyses (ie, 0.05/5, Bonferroni). CONCLUSION Resident's perception of the learning environment in the anesthesiology residency program of the Cleveland Clinic is on the positive side, as measured by the DREEM questionnaire. We found no association between the year of training and the DREEM questionnaire overall score. Furthermore, we found no association between year of residency and any of the subscores for the 5 DREEM domains. There is room for improvement, especially in the area of self-perception.