key: cord-1044833-a5kx8hqi
authors: Dutta, Siddhartha; Ambwani, Sneha; Lal, Hina; Ram, Kishna; Mishra, Govind; Kumar, Tarun; Varthya, Shoban Babu
title: A Response to “The Satisfaction Level of Undergraduate Medical and Nursing Students Regarding Distant Preclinical and Clinical Teaching Amidst COVID-19 Across India” [Response to Letter]
date: 2021-04-19
journal: Adv Med Educ Pract
DOI: 10.2147/amep.s313975
sha: 35fb0143f524dd7b5a0dd3a70e668065650774bc
doc_id: 1044833
cord_uid: a5kx8hqi

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welcome the impactful suggestion and will definitely consider the same in our future studies.

Further, it was stated that

The study could be more impactful if opinions were discussed in focus groups to elaborate on these issues surrounding online learning and develop solutions to combat the associated problems. 2 We welcome the suggestions and do agree to the part that "focus group discussion" could have improved the quality of the study. However, focus group discussions are to be done in a small group of students that is focused on a certain topic. 2 Our study was not a single-center study, but a pan-India study, hence focus group discussions to assess the issues and coming to a solution was practically impossible through online mode.

Concerning to the third query, we used the Satisfaction Index (SI) formula as given in "Educational Handbook for Health Personnel" Sixth Edition published by World Health Organization, Geneva (WHO Offset Publication). As in the given publication, there was no definite categorization of the satisfactory index (e.g. highly satisfied, satisfied, not satisfied etc.) and only mentioned that 60% may be considered as "average satisfaction". 3 During the study, we reviewed the literature but could not find any grading of SI to be used hence we calculated the SI and presented the result descriptively. 3, 4 We appreciate and welcome your valuable suggestions and would definitely include them in future studies.

Concerning to the fourth query, we used the Satisfaction Index (SI) formula as quoted by the WHO handbook and previous literature. 3, 4 The formula did not include the neutral value hence we too excluded it from our calculation. We would like to thank for the valuable suggestions for using the visual analogue scale for such studies and would definitely incorporate it in similar studies conducted in the future. 5 In conclusion, this was a study on the online teaching of medical and nursing undergraduates during the COVID-19 pandemic in whom the clinical skills, practical exercises, and hands-on approaches are crucial parts of the professional curriculum. This was probably the first time the medical and nursing students were attending their entire curriculum via online mode without being physically present at the college campus depriving them of practical and clinical knowledge. Being a developing nation the uniformity of teaching resources in different institutions across the country probably was not the same which can impact the effectiveness of online teaching in these students. Hence, we planned to assess the satisfaction among students. We would like to appreciate the constructive feedback from the authors and believe that this study will pave way for future studies.

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Advances in Medical Education and Practice is an international, peerreviewed, open access journal that aims to present and publish research on Medical Education covering medical, dental, nursing and allied health care professional education. The journal covers undergraduate education, postgraduate training and continuing medical education including emerging trends and innovative models linking education, research, and health care services. The manuscript management system is completely online and includes a very quick and fair peer-review system. Visit http://www.dovepress.com/testimonials.php to read real quotes from published authors. 

The satisfaction level of undergraduate medical and nursing students regarding distant preclinical and clinical teaching amidst COVID-19 across India

Using focus groups in medical education research: AMEE Guide No. 91

Educational handbook for health personnel. World Health Organization

Engaging medical undergraduates in question making: a novel way to reinforcing learning in physiology

The use of analogue scales in rating subjective feelings

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this communication.