Medical student's perceptions of learning environments in Gonabad University of Medical Science

recently, many changes have been made in medical education all over the world. For this reason, students’ perception of the educational environment has attracted attention. Goal of this research is to compare perception of the students who are passing training courses with the students who are passing theoretical courses and compare two genders and different fields of study in Gonabad University of Medical Sciences in 2011. this research is cross-sectional in which 234 students of nursing and midwifery(98students), health(57 students), paramedicine(62students) and medicine(17 students) of Gonabad University of Medical Sciences participated. Data collection instrument was DREEM (Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure). This standard questionnaire included 50 items in five fields of learning, students’ perceptions of atmosphere, students’ perceptions of teachers, students’ academic self-perception, students’ social self perception. The obtained data were analyzed after inclusion in software SPSS, version 20. research findings showed that total mean of DREEM score for students was 108.52 out of 200. Students of theoretical course were more satisfied with learning environments than the training course students. This is statistically significant(P=0.003). There was no statistical difference between female and male students. There is significant relationship between nursing, midwifery and paramedicine(P=0.01). Generally, although students evaluated learning environment in university from Desirable, it is necessary to pay more attention to educational principles and create suitable educational environment for better learning of the students and the use of instruments such as DREEM can contribute to process of change in education.