The National Student Survey: is it just a bad DREEM?
BACKGROUND
In this article, we consider the need for medical schools to improve the overall experience given to students by gaining appropriate feedback and ask whether the UK National Student Survey (NSS) is an appropriate tool.


OBJECTIVE
We compare the currently used NSS data against data collected via an alternative, well validated, questionnaire - the Dundee Ready Education Environment Measure (DREEM).


METHODS
The DREEM data was collected in January to April 2011, from the same cohort of students who were completing the UK online NSS. The NSS results were released into the public domain as frequency tables from which we calculated the standard deviations of each item. The DREEM questionnaire data were rescaled to match the NSS questionnaire data.


RESULTS
The results were similar from each questionnaire, with a wide range of responses. Both DREEM and NSS data showed Assessment and Feedback to be the greatest problem, but the DREEM questions were specific, contextualised and could be used for curriculum development.


CONCLUSIONS
This comparison shows the benefits of using a medical school-specific questionnaire to gain quality feedback in order to precisely alter elements of the course rather than relying on a generic questionnaire to gauge students' opinions.
University of Liverpool , UK.
Samuel T
ST
Cocksedge
David C M
DC
Taylor
D004777:Environment; D005246:Feedback; D006801:Humans; D012577:Schools, Medical / Q000592:standards*; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D006113:United Kingdom