Japanese dental trainees' perceptions of educational environment in postgraduate training.
BACKGROUND
Compulsory postgraduate dental training was introduced in April 2006 to meet social requirements in Japan.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to identify the difference in trainees' perception of the educational environment in two different training settings in the Hiroshima University Hospital postgraduate training program: (1) main hospitals, in Hiroshima's case, the University Hospital: (2) community dental hospitals or offices (cooperating hospitals).


METHODS
In order to determine how trainees perceive their educational environment, the Postgraduate Hospital Educational Environment Measure (PHEEM) Inventory was administered to 50 vocational dental trainees for two different training settings, both of which all trainees had experienced.


RESULTS
The mean total PHEEM score in the main hospital was 102.4, and that in cooperating hospitals was 108.5. The scores for each of the three subscales were as follows: 'Perception of role autonomy': 33.9/56 (main hospital), 36.8/56 (cooperating hospitals); 'Perception of teaching': 38.1/60 (main hospital), 41,9/60 (cooperating hospitals), and 'Perception of social support': 30.4/44 (main hospital), 29.8/44 (cooperating hospitals) respectively.


CONCLUSIONS
PHEEM provided meaningful diagnostic information on the educational environment, and showed that cooperating hospitals met trainees' needs more than main hospitals.
Taguchi
Norihiro
N
Hiroshima University Hospital, Japan. ntaguchi@hiroshima-u.ac.jp
Ogawa
Tetsuji
T
Sasahara
Hisako
H
D000328:Adult; D003796:Dental Service, Hospital; D004499:Education, Dental, Graduate; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D008297:Male; D013335:Students, Dental / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult