Evaluation of hospital-learning environment for pediatric residency in eastern region of Saudi Arabia

PURPOSE No study had been conducted to assess the hospitals' environment for learning purposes in multicenter sites in Saudi Arabia. It aims to evaluate the environment of hospitals for learning purposes of pediatric residents. METHODS We applied Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) to measure the learning environment at six teaching hospitals in the Eastern Region of Saudi Arabia from September to December 2013. RESULTS The number of respondents was 104 (86.7%) out of 120 residents and 37 females and 67 male residents have responded. The residents' response scored 100 out of 160 maximum score in rating of PHEEM that showed overall learning environment is favorable for training. There were some items in the social support domain suggesting improvements. There was no significant difference between male and female residents. There was a difference among the participant teaching hospitals (p<0.05). CONCLUSION The result pointed an overall positive rating. Individual item scores suggested that their social life during residency could be uninspiring. They have the low satisfactory level and they feel racism, and sexual discrimination. Therefore, there is still a room for improvement.