Development and validation of the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM)

TLDR

The General Medical Council’s reforms have accelerated changes in UK medical schools, mirroring North American developments, and while improving the learning environment is a priority, the rapid pace itself creates stress. The study aims to develop and validate a universal inventory that diagnoses the learning and teaching climate in health professions schools. The inventory functions as a diagnostic tool to measure the state of a school's learning and teaching climate.

Abstract

The General Medical Council has initiated major innovations in the undergraduate medical curriculum. These requirements are forcing a rapid rate of change in medical schools throughout the UK which parallels many developments in North America. There have also been several international and national mission statements which call for similar reforms in education in the health professions. While the improvement of the learning environment and 'climate' is a major goal of the changes, the very rate of change is itself stressful. The present research reports the development and validation of a universal inventory that equips health professions/medical educators with a diagnostic tool to measure the state of their school's learning and teaching climate.