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

•Perception of educational environment is a relevant indicator of curriculum implementation success.•Resident's perception of learning environment impacts motivation, which is a key factor that affects academic and clinical performance.•Perception of learning environment is not affected by years of residency training.•Learning environment is an area to focus improvement efforts in an anesthesiology residency program.

Study ObjectivesTo 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.DesignCross-sectional study.SettingResidency program of anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic.Subjects and InterventionResidents of anesthesiology at the Cleveland Clinic were invited to complete the DREEM questionnaire and a demographic survey.MeasurementsWe 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.ResultsOf 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).ConclusionResident'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.