Educational Environment in Medical Assistant Colleges (Paperback)

The Medical Assistants are the primary health care providers in rural settings of Malaysia. The shift of Medical Assistant program from certificate to diploma level is a recognition from the community for this career. The educational environment is one of the areas that should be considered to ensure the standard of an educational program. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted among the students of a private and a public Medical Assistant College of Malaysia. The objective of the study was to measure and compare the students' perception about the educational environment of their colleges. The validated Dundee Ready Educational Environment Measure (DREEM)inventory was used for collecting the data. The study found that students' of both the colleges are having positive perception about their educational environment. The private college scored slightly better than public college in all aspects. There were few problem areas for both the colleges. Recommendations were made to the colleges to look at the weak and strong areas and working together for improvement of their educational environment which is one of the important factors for effective teaching and learning