Preparedness and satisfaction of European medical students: development and validation of the EUSPSQ

In Europe, during an era of globalization in which traveling and studying abroad is becoming easier and more affordable, an open question remains on whether different European medical schools educate students with a dissimilar level of preparedness and/or satisfaction.

To develop and validate the EUropean Students' Preparedness and Satisfaction Questionnaire (EUSPSQ), a standardized European tool to assess preparedness and satisfaction in medical education.

30 participants belonging to the 5th and 6th year of two different European medical schools (Sapienza University of Rome and Universidad Complutense de Madrid) participated in the validation of the study. A standard validation protocol that included item development, test-retesting, and a series of statistical validation analyses, was used. Feasibility, test-retest reliability, inter-item reliability were assessed quantitatively. Face validity was evaluated qualitatively by an expert professor in the field.

Test-retest and inter-item reliability were considered satisfactory for all the parts of the questionnaire. Part III and IV presented lower Cohen's kappa values, probably as a consequence of their inherent subjectivity. When one item in Part III was removed, the Cronbach's alpha values of both initial and 48h answers consider-ably increased (-0.355 to 0.713 and -0.202 to 0.808 respectively). We therefore decided to eliminate the question from the EUSPSQ. Internal and external validity were considered appropriate. The questionnaire was also feasible and viable to complete.

Preliminary findings indicate that the EUSPSQ can be a valid, viable and reliable questionnaire to measure preparedness and satisfaction of 5th and 6th year medical students across different European Universities.