Skip to main content
PLOS ONE logoLink to PLOS ONE
. 2021 Oct 14;16(10):e0258633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258633

Do medical students and residents impact the quality of patient care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019

Giuseppe Perri 1,¤,#, Matteo d’Angelo 1,#, Cecilia Smaniotto 1,*,#, Massimo Del Pin 1,#, Edoardo Ruscio 1,#, Carla Londero 2,#, Laura Brunelli 1,2,#, Luigi Castriotta 3,#, Silvio Brusaferro 1,#
Editor: Sharon Mary Brownie4
PMCID: PMC8516237  PMID: 34648577

Abstract

Medical students and residents play an important role in patient care and ward activities, thus they should follow hospital procedures and ensure best practices and patient safety. A survey concerning staff on training was conducted to assess the perceived quality of healthcare from healthcare workers (HCWs), residents, medical students and patients in Udine Academic Hospital, Italy. Between December, 2018 and March, 2019, a 5-point Likert-scale questionnaire was administered in 21 units, covering four thematic areas: patients and medical staff satisfaction with the quality of care provided by residents and students, patient privacy, clinical risk management, patient perception of staff on training. Data analysis included descriptive analysis and ordered logistic regressions. A total of 596/1,863 questionnaires were collected from: HCWs (165/772), residents (110/355), students (121/389), and patients (200/347). Residents were rated high both by patients (median = 5, IQR = 4–5, OR 0.49, 95%CI 0.26–0.93) and HCWs (median = 4, IQR = 3–5, OR 0.14, 95%CI 0.08–0.26), with a lower score for medical students on the same topic, both by patients (median = 4, IQR = 3–5, OR 2.94, 95%CI 1.49–5.78) and HCWs (median = 3, IQR = 2–3, OR 0.41, 95%CI 0.25–0.67). Therefore, the role of staff on training in quality and safety of healthcare deserves integrated regular evaluation, since direct interaction with patients contributes to patients’ perception of healthcare.

Introduction

Medical studies require an effective planning to properly manage such a complex didactic activity. Therefore, it is important to ensure a collaborative, constructive, and respectful link between academic activities and healthcare needs and tasks in providing care; it is equally important to design a formative assessment to evaluate the overall effectiveness of the programme and its elements.

Concerning the undergraduate level, basic medical training in Italian University takes place mainly in the last three years of academic education (out of six). After graduation, physicians attend a four- or five-year residency programme, in which each specialty establishes a specific curriculum and training activities to meet national requirements. The Italian reform of residency training programmes, established by D.L.vo 257/91, which implements European Directive 82/76/EEC, requires full-time participation of medical residents in clinical practice within the healthcare facility where they are attending their residency programme. The aim of this law is to provide residents with comprehensive and relevant training so that they achieve an appropriate level of competence and performance. Moreover, the D.L.vo 502/92 regulates the relationship between the National Health System (NHS) and Italian University, stating that each Region shall establish specific agreements with Universities to regulate the contribution of Faculties of Medicine and Surgery to NHS healthcare activity, fully respecting their scientific and didactic aims as an institution. Therefore, both academic and non-academic physicians must fulfil duties related to healthcare, didactic and research activities [1]. Medical students and residents (described as “staff on training” from this point forward when referring to both categories together), during their training, interface both with patients and HCWs and come into contact with different multidisciplinary work teams and contexts. Adherence to safety standards and best clinical practices observed by the hospital, as well as awareness of the risks associated with hands-on activities, are essential elements for their stay on the wards and departments. To ensure quality and safety of healthcare services, while guaranteeing valid clinical training paths, it is essential to understand how the behaviour and actions of staff on training are perceived by both patients and HCWs in relation to safety and clinical risk management.

According to patient-as-partner approach, after receiving the necessary information to choose the degree of control over health decisions that affect them, patients are directly involved in improving the quality in healthcare services [2]. Moreover, the system should be able to take into account the different preferences of patients and encourage shared decision making [3, 4].

The importance of the assessment of perceived quality by patients within healthcare facilities has increased since the 80s, along with transparency and accountability in morbidity and mortality data [5]. This concept has been recently widened to include an improvement in relationships between patients, physicians and caregivers to ensure consideration of stakeholders’ preferences, needs and values [6]. This reflects the increasing trend of using data on satisfaction and perceived quality to define medical outcomes, as well as the growing relation between public perceptions of quality and expert ratings medical effectiveness [5].

The patient is thus an active member of the healthcare system, in accordance with the assumption that the subject is a co-producer (prosumer) of health [7] and a protagonist of his/her own healthcare path. Since patients’ satisfaction is considered an outcome of healthcare [8], the perspective of user-prosumer becomes a measurable indicator whose value can be used to guide healthcare decision makers. However, as the impact and degree of success of such strategies are also influenced by the different contexts in which the interventions are planned and implemented [9], aspects such as leadership, appreciation of personal skills and organisational resources cannot be overlooked. Moreover, such assessment allows both the application of quality principles and the achievement of users’ satisfaction [10], although this cannot be sufficient, since the user is not necessarily an expert [11]. In general, users express particular agreement on those interventions perceived as directly improving their own health, such as solving a problem, relieving painful symptoms, improving an impaired performance status, etc., but pay equal attention to several other aspects of the service [10, 12], including: timing, clarity of procedures, information about the treatment, orientation and reception in the facility, features of the facility, social and human relations.

Even though the positive feedback from patients to participation in medical training is widely reported in the literature [13], according to Barksby [14] it is necessary to consider the impact of training staff presence on patients, also to optimise resources for training future medical professionals. On the other hand, the training staff’s opinions collected concerning actions and compliance with safety standards set by the hospital can be usefully compared with the perception of patients and HCWs. This type of patient-centred survey can provide suggestions for leadership and provide a contribution to adopt coherent strategies for healthcare quality and safety and training effectiveness, as well as satisfaction of all stakeholders [15].

The main aim of this study was to evaluate the quality of care in an academic hospital, taking into account different perspectives from: staff on training, patients and HCWs; secondary objectives were to identify elements that contribute to the quality and safety of healthcare, as well as strategies to optimise the educational goals in healthcare.

Methods

Design of the study and previous research

This monocentric, observational and cross-sectional study was developed by the Quality Team from Udine Academic Hospital and is based on a pilot project conducted in 2017 with 279 contributions.

Design of the questionnaire and testing phase

A multiple-choice questionnaire was constructed based on the pilot project and available literature for each category of stakeholders: medical students, medical residents, HCWs and patients [16]. The questions covered four thematic areas: patient and medical staff satisfaction with the quality of care provided by residents (A); patients’ privacy (B); clinical risk management (C); patients’ perceptions of staff on training (D). The number of questions for each macro area varied depending on the category of participants: a total of 30, 46, 24, and 31 questions were asked to patients, HCWs, medical students and residents, respectively. Demographic information such as age, gender, level of education (patients), hospital unit (patients, HCWs), year of attendance (staff on training) and academic tutoring (HCWs) were collected. Responses were coded using a Likert scale score expressed as level of agreement: strongly agree (5), agree (4), neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree (2), strongly disagree (1). The comprehensibility and internal consistency of the questionnaire were tested by presenting it to a group of multidisciplinary experts, working for the Quality team (Cronbach alpha = 0.85). During this testing phase, the time to complete the questionnaire was set at 30 minutes, taking into account the heterogeneous psychophysical conditions of the respondents.

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

Patients, HCWs and staff on training of the following units of Udine Academic Hospital participated in the survey: general surgery, internal medicine, obstetrics and gynaecology, oral and maxillofacial surgery, plastic surgery, ophthalmology, cardiology, pneumology, nephrology, otolaryngology, orthopaedics, urology, infectious diseases, rheumatology, vascular surgery, gastroenterology, haematology, neurosurgery, cardiac surgery, thoracic surgery, accident and emergency departments. To participate in the survey, inpatients had to be ≥18 years old, admitted to Udine Academic Hospital at least since the night before the index day, able to respond, and willing to participate in the survey. Patients who were not available for other examinations or procedures were excluded. All medical residents attending Udine Academic Hospital were included. As for medical students, only those attending their 4th-5th-6th year at University of Udine were included, since during this period they were carrying out their clinical training in the hospital facilities and thus they were in contact with patients. All participants were informed about the aims of the study and the confidentiality of data. The questionnaires of medical students, residents and HCWs’ were completely anonymous and participation in the study was voluntary. Participating patients signed an informed consent form before completing the anonymous questionnaire. The study protocol was approved by Friuli-Venezia Giulia Regional Unique Ethical Committee (CEUR, D 2596 18/12/2018).

Data collection

HCWs, medical students and medical residents were enrolled between January and March, 2019 by sending an email invitation to participate with a direct link to the online questionnaire. The study was also announced by posters display with QR code/link to the questionnaire on notice boards in the hospital. Questionnaires were administered to inpatients between December, 2018 and March, 2019. Ten trained clinicians distributed the questionnaires to inpatients and were available to provide any necessary explanation until the survey was completed.

Sample size calculation

Convenience sampling was chosen for data collection. The minimum number of needed questionnaires was calculated for each respondent category using the OpenEpi tool, assuming a precision of 10%, 95% confidence interval, expected response rate to the first pivotal question in the questionnaire and reference population sizes; for each respondent category were:

  • 76 questionnaires from inpatients (population size: 350; expected response rate 50%);

  • 74 questionnaires from HCWs (population size: 800; expected response rate 70%);

  • 68 questionnaires from medical students (population size 400; expected response rate 70%);

  • 68 questionnaires from medical residents (population size 400, expected response rate 70%).

Data analysis

All responses were entered into an electronic spreadsheet programme and checked for any incorrect information or missing values. Completed questionnaires were aggregated according to stakeholder categories, medical, surgical or diagnostic and clinical services department. The study population features were investigated performing descriptive statistics on categorical and numerical variables. Frequency distributions were used for categorical variables. For numerical variables we considered mean, median, interquartile range (IQR), standard deviation (SD). Ordered logistic regression were performed to investigate the association between answers and category, after assessing proportionality odds assumption through the approximate likelihood-ratio test of proportionality of odds; when the assumption did not hold generalised ordered logistic regression were performed (using “autofit” option when questions were answered by 3 or more categories) [17]. Scores of two question were recoded as dichotomous “Agree” (strongly agree (5), agree (4)) and “Don’t agree” (neither agree nor disagree (3), disagree (2), strongly disagree (1)) for lack of convergence; logistic regressions’ goodness of fit was measured with Hosmer-Lemeshow test. Data analysis was performed using Stata 17 (StataCorp. 2021. Stata Statistical Software: Release 17. College Station, TX: StataCorp LLC).

Results

Participation in the study was offered to 1,863 subjects, including 389 medical students, 355 medical residents, 772 HCWs (295 physicians and 477 nurses), and 347 patients. In all, 596 questionnaires were collected: 121 from medical students (21%), 110 from medical residents (19%); 165 from HCWs (28.5%), of whom 44 (27%) were physicians and 121 (73%) were nurses, and 200 from patients (35%). The overall response rate was 32.1%. Table 1 (below) reports mean age of all respondents for each group.

Table 1. Age of respondents, according to respondent category.

Respondents Mean Age [std. dev] (years)
Male n = 232 Female n = 347 Total n = 596
Patients n = 347 63.5 [16.2] 59.5 [18.1] 61.4 [17.3]
Staff on training n = 744 Medical students n = 389 24.4 [3.1] 24.3 [1.9] 24.3 [2.5]
Medical residents n = 355 30.2 [3.7] 29.2 [2.2] 29.6 [2.9]
Healthcare workers n = 772 Physicians n = 295 48.7 [10.2] 42.1[7.1] 45.9 [9.5]
Nurses n = 477 37 [7.6] 38.3 [9.1] 38.2 [8.9]

More than half of the patients (51%, 100/196) had ISCED (International Standard Classification of Education) level >3; specifically, 23% (45/196) had primary education, 26% (51/196) had lower secondary education and 37% (73/196) had upper secondary education, while 14% (27/196) had tertiary or equivalent education. The respondents among inpatients were 44% (88/200) from medical department and 56% (112/200) from surgical department. A similar distribution was observed for HCWs category, as 51% of them worked in the medical department (85/165). Residents working within medical department were 55% (60/110), while 20% (22/110) of them were from surgical and 25% (27/110) from diagnostic and clinical services departments. Twenty-six medical students (21%) were attending the 4th, 29 (24%) the 5th and 66 (55%) the 6th year of their medical studies.

Patients and medical staff satisfaction with the quality of care provided by residents and medical students

Residents’ self-perception of their contribution to the quality of healthcare (median[IQR] = 5 [5–5]) is significantly higher than the assessment given by patients (median[IQR] = 5[45]; OR[95%CI] = 0.49 [0.26–0.93]) and HCWs (4[35]; OR[95%CI] = 0.14 [0.08–0.26]) (Table 2, Question A1). Instead, patients rate the contribution of students higher (4[35]; OR[95%CI] = 2.94 [1.49–5.78]) than medical students themselves (3[34]), but also compared to residents and HCWs.

Table 2. Perception of staff on training by students, residents, patients and HCWs on questions posed, reported by single question as medians and IQR, as well as OR (95%CI).

Area Question (perception on. . .) Staff on training category Perceived by. . .
Students (N = 389) Residents (N = 355) Patients (N = 347) HCWs (N = 722)
Median (IQR) OR (95% CI) Median (IQR) OR (95% CI) Median (IQR) OR (95% CI) Median (IQR) OR (95% CI)
A A1) Assistance improved by staff on training Residents 5 (5–5) 0.78 (0.41–1.48) 5 (5–5) 1 5 (4–5) 0.49 (0.26–0.93) 4 (3–5) 0.14 (0.08–0.26)
Students 3 (3–4) 1 3 (2–4) 0.68 (0.43–1.09) 4 (3–5) 2.94* (1.49–5.78) 3 (2–3) 0.41 (0.25–0.67)
A2) Human side assistance contribution Residents / / 4 (3–5) 1 / / 5 (4–5) 1.54 (0.79–2.98)
Students 4 (3–4) 1 / / / / 3 (3–4) 0.42 (0.25–0.69)
B B1) Preservation of privacy Residents / / 5 (4–5) 1 5 (5–5) 3.17 (1.54–6.57) 5 (4–5) 0.65 (0.39–1.10)
Students 5 (4–5) 1 / / 5 (5–5) 2.40 (1.03–5.61) 4 (3–5) 0.20 (0.12–0.34)
B2) No accidental data diffusion Residents / / 5 (4–5) 1 5 (5–5) 1.74** (0.56–5.40) 5 (4–5) 0.36** (0.16–0.80)
Students 5 (4–5) 1 / / 5 (4.5–5) 3.19 (1.50–6.79) 4 (3–5) 0.39 (0.23–0.65)
C C1) Medical record management Residents / / 5 (4–5) 1 / / 4 (2–5) 0.09* (0.03–0.22)
Students 5 (5–5) 1 / / / / 4 (3–5) 0.09 (0.48–0.17)
C2) Informed consent collection Residents / / 5 (5–5) 1 / / 5 (4–5) 0.04** (0.01–0.29)
C3) Reporting mistakes Residents / / 4 (4–5) 1 / / 4 (3–5) 0.28* (0.13–0.60)
Students 5 (4–5) 1 / / / / 3 (2–4) 0.15 (0.08–0.27)
C4) Hand washing Residents / / 4 (4–5) 1 5 (4–5) 1.39* (0.61–3.15) 4 (4–5) 0.51 (0.32–0.82)
Students 4 (4–5) 1 / / 5 (5–5) 5.12 (2.28–11.51) 4 (3–4) 0.16 (0.09–0.28)
C5) Patients’ pain immediately reported by students Students 4 (3–5) 1 / / 5 (4–5) 4.07 (1.71–9.70) / /
D D1) Distinguishing staff on training from HCWs Residents / / 3 (2–4) 1 4 (2–5) 2.13* (1.25–3.63) 4 (2–4) 1.20 (0.77–1.87)
Students 4 (2–5) 1 / / 4 (4–5) 5.43* (2.15–13.72) 4 (3–4) 0.85* (0.51–1.44)
D2) Patients’ trust Residents / / 4 (4–4) 1 5 (5–5) 10.20 (5.80–18.11) 4 (3–5) 1.10 (0.07–1.74)
Students 3 (2–4) 1 / / 4 (4–5) 15.23 (7.21–32.19) 3(2–3) 0.77* (0.40–1.49)
D3) Patients’ satisfaction of staff on training assistance Residents / / / / 5 (5–5) 1 4 (4–5) 0.10 (0.05–0.18)
Students / / / / 4 (3–5) 1 3 (3–4) 0.23* (0.11–0.48)
D4) Adequate students flow within wards Students 2 (1–2) 0.10 (0.05–0.19) 2 (2–3) 0.19 (0.10–0.36) 4 (2–5) 1 2 (1–3) 0.09* (0.04–0.20)

*: Generalized ordered logistic regression (1,2,3 scores vs 4,5 scores stratum), all strata in Supplementary Material S3 Appendix. Data set.

**: Logistic regression (1,2,3 scores vs 4,5 scores dichotomy).

/: Question not asked.

The HCWs rate students’ ability to influence the human side of care as adequate (3[34]), but are more certain (5[45]) about the residents’ contribution on this point (Table 2, Question A2).

Patient privacy

There is agreement that residents pay close attention to preserve patient privacy during the course of their clinical duties (Table 2, Question B1) and to avoid inadvertent disclosure of sensitive information (Table 2, Question B2), with patients scoring highest (Question B1: 5[5–5]; OR[95%CI] = 3.17 [1.54–6.57]; Question B2: 5[5–5]; OR[95%CI] = 1.74 [0.56–5.40]) of all stakeholders on this issue.

Students’ ability to protect patient privacy results is similar to residents’, but there are significant differences, with HCWs giving the lowest, nonetheless adequate, scores.

Clinical risk management

Significantly different ratings of clinical risk management were given by stakeholders, with HCWs being more critical on residents concerning medical record management (Table 2, Question C1: 4[25]; OR[95%CI] = 0.09 [0.03–0.22]) and reporting errors in the performance of tasks (Table 2, Question C3: 4[35]; OR[95%CI] = 0.28 [0.13–0.60]).

Similar ratings were given by HCWs also about the students (Question C1: 4[35]; OR[95%CI] = 0.09 [0.48–017]; Question C3: 3[24]; OR[95%CI] = 0.15 [0.08–0.27]).

In addition, there is little disagreement between HCWs and residents about the appropriateness of obtaining informed consents (Table 2, Question C2) (H-L test on this question’s model indicated poor fit, likely due to near total agreement among residents).

There is no agreement that residents, while carrying out their activities, properly wash their hands with water and/or chlorhexidine gel when performing their duties, which is even more evident among medical students (Table 2, Question C4).

Data show that when patients report feeling pain, students immediately call the nurse or the physician, which is confirmed by patients (5 [45]) (Table 2, Question C5).

Patients’ perception of staff on training

The interviewed categories partially agree that patients can correctly distinguish staff on training from physicians, yet patients seem to be more confident on this issue (about residents: 4 [25]; about students: 4 [45]) (Table 2, Question D1).

Patients’ confidence in staff on training is significantly higher (about residents: 5[5–5] OR[95%CI] = 10.20 [5.80–18.11]; about students: 4[45] OR[95%CI] = 15.23 [7.21–32.19]) than students’, residents’ and HCWs’ (Table 2, Question D2) perception. The level of overall patient satisfaction with the quality of the assistance offered by staff on training (about residents: 5[5–5]; about students: 4[35]) was higher than what perceived by HCWs (about residents: 4[45] OR[95%CI] = 0.10 [0.05–0.18]; about students: 3[34] OR[95%CI] = 0.23 [0.11–0.48]) (Table 2, Question D3). According to the patients, the flow of students in the wards is adequate, while other categories are more critical on this point (Table 2, Question D4).

All results are shown in Table 2 as median and IQR, OR and 95%CI, and are presented below for each thematic area.

Discussion

The level of satisfaction of healthcare quality expressed by patients also derives from the impact that staff on training has on them [18], which can be positive or negative [19, 20]. In our case, patients’ overall satisfaction with healthcare seems to be good, especially their judgment on staff on training is higher than HCWs’, which is still quite good. Our data support the evidence that the presence of residents in hospitals improves the overall quality of healthcare [19, 21]; nevertheless, their role as peer educators for medical students [22, 23] must be considered as well. Even if staff on training do not believe that students add value to healthcare, data have shown that student-led activities are also valued by other stakeholders. Privacy protection is a key issue for healthcare professional’s education and training, as stated by deontological codes and related legislation [2426]; significant differences emerged in this specific area of quality from the analysis, in particular HCWs’ perception of privacy protection by medical students is lower than what reported by patients’ and students’ self-assessment.

Moreover, in our case, patients confirmed being just partially able to distinguish staff on training from HCWs as previously mentioned [27], although this problem was not confirmed by Barksby [14]. Staff on training and HCWs also strongly confirmed patients’ difficulties in distinguishing residents from physicians, but were more confident about patients’ ability to correctly identify medical students. In our particular context, these difficulties could be due to a lack of marks or features that could help in distinguishing specific categories, suggesting a hypothetical solution in the form of chromatically different uniforms for students and staff.

Since there is a discrepancy between the staff on training self-perception and the assessment reported by the HCWs regarding medical record management, reporting errors and hand washing, audit and feedback procedures [28] and role modelling of HCWs should be enhanced, as well as training staff involvement in hospital activities for safety and quality improvement. This survey should be repeated in the future, including other university hospitals or healthcare facilities for comparative purposes, and the specific variables analysed in this first assessment should be further explored through further research.

Limits and strengths of the study

The survey was conducted using questionnaires that were only partially comparable between stakeholders’ categories, as some questions were only addressed to three out of four categories. Some difficulties in reaching nurses were found as they do not have an institutional email address; nevertheless, the only email invitation to participate turned out to be insufficient also as far as physicians and medical resident are concerned. Other stakeholders’ characteristics not considered in this analysis (e.g. specific ward, patient’s age and clinical condition, number of students per ward/unit), could have played a role as confounders [29] and should be taken into account in further research on this topic. Furthermore, this was a monocentric study and comparison with other studies is limited by the fact that they were conducted using different methods, at different times and with different levels of engagement. The non-respondent rate was quite high, 67.9%. Nonetheless, a strong point of this survey is the assessment of highlights or shortcomings mentioned by different categories of interviewed stakeholders within the academic hospital, as a helpful tool to identify such elements in their local context. Also, the survey is designed as a structured assessment, in which different stakeholders are asked about the same issues and compared with each other. The application of a Likert scale allows putting a set of opinions into quantifiable and objective evaluations. Potential improvement purposes include tailoring contact methods and timing to the subjects’ characteristics, strengthening the engagement of managers and recipients’ commitment, and conducting effective reminders.

Conclusions

Within Udine Academic Hospital, staff on training appears to contribute positively to the overall healthcare quality and safety. Our findings suggest that patients are generally satisfied with the quality of healthcare provided by medical students. However, some shortcomings still persist, especially in relation to safety issues, which should be addressed primarily by academic healthcare institutions. Nevertheless, the study showed encouraging results that suggest improvement strategies for the near future that should be implemented.

Supporting information

S1 Table. Perception of staff on training by students, residents, patients and HCWs: Complete results from generalised ordered logistic regression.

(DOCX)

S1 Appendix. Questionnaires (English).

(PDF)

S2 Appendix. Questionnaires (Italian).

(PDF)

S3 Appendix. Data set.

(XLS)

Data Availability

All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.

Funding Statement

The authors received no specific funding for this work.

References

  • 1.Ministero della Salute. Dipartimenti per il Governo Clinico e l’Integrazione tra Assistenza, Didattica e Ricerca. 2011. Available from: http://www.salute.gov.it/imgs/C_17_pubblicazioni_1518_allegato.pdf.
  • 2.Karazivan P, Dumez V, Flora L, Pomey MP, Del Grande C, Ghadiri DP, et al. The patient-as-partner approach in health care: A conceptual framework for a necessary transition. Acad Med. 2015;90(4):437–441. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000000603 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 3.Richards T, Montori VM, Godlee F, Lapsley P, Paul D. Let the patient revolution begin. BMJ. 2013;346(7908). doi: 10.1136/bmj.f2614 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 4.Crossing the Quality Chasm. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press; 2001. 10.17226/10027. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 5.Boscarino JA. Patients’ Perception of Quality Hospital Care and Hospital Occupancy: Are There Biases Associated with Assessing Quality Care Based on Patients’ Perceptions? Int J Qual Health Care. 1996; 8(5):467–477. PII: S1353-4505(96)00056-7. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/8.5.467 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 6.Montgomery K, Little M. Enriching Patient-Centered Care in Serious Illness: A Focus on Patients’ Experiences of Agency. Milbank Q. 2011;89(3):381–398. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-0009.2011.00633.x [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 7.Donabedian A. The Lichfield Lecture. Quality assurance in health care: consumers’ role. Qual Health Care. 1992;1(4):247–251. doi: 10.1136/qshc.1.4.247 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 8.Donabedian A. Criteria, norms and standards of quality: what do they mean? Am J Public Health. 1981;71(4):409–412. doi: 10.2105/ajph.71.4.409 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 9.Kringos DS, Sunol R, Wagner C, Mannion R, Michel P, Klazinga NS, et al. The influence of context on the effectiveness of hospital quality improvement strategies: a review of systematic reviews. 2015;(1):277. 10.1186/s12913-015-0906-0. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 10.Naidu A. Factors affecting patient satisfaction and healthcare quality. Int J Health Care Qual Assur. 2009;22(4):366–381. doi: 10.1108/09526860910964834 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 11.Tan SS-L, Goonawardene N. Internet Health Information Seeking and the Patient-Physician Relationship: A Systematic Review. J Med Internet Res. 2017;19(1):e9. doi: 10.2196/jmir.5729 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 12.Calamandrei C, Orlandi C. La Dirigenza Infermieristica: Manuale per La Formazione Dell’infermiere Con Funzioni Manageriali. McGraw-Hill Italia; 2008. ISBN/EAN: 9788838616716. [Google Scholar]
  • 13.Howe A, Anderson J. Learning in practice Involving patients in medical education. BMJ. 2003. Aug 9; 327(7410): 326–328. doi: 10.1136/bmj.327.7410.326 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 14.Barksby J. Service users’ perceptions of student nurses. Nurs Times. 2014. May 7–13;110(19):23–25. . [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 15.Avgar AC, Givan RK, Liu M. Patient-Centered but Employee Delivered: Patient Care Innovation, Turnover Intentions, and Organizational Outcomes in Hospitals. ILR Rev. 2011;64(3):423–440. 10.1177/001979391106400301. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 16.Grogan S, Conner M, Willits D, Norman P. Development of a questionnaire to measure patients’ satisfaction with general practitioners’ services. Br J Gen Pract. 1995;45(399):525–529. . [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 17.Williams R. Understanding and interpreting generalized ordered logit models. Journal of Mathematical Sociology. 2016;40(1):7–20. 10.1080/0022250X.2015.1112384. [DOI] [Google Scholar]
  • 18.Haffling A-C, Håkansson A. Patients consulting with students in general practice: Survey of patients’ satisfaction and their role in teaching. Med Teach. 2008;30(6):622–629. doi: 10.1080/01421590802043827 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 19.Voogt JJ, van Rensen ELJ, van der Schaaf MF, Noordegraaf M, Schneider MM. Building bridges: engaging medical residents in quality improvement and medical leadership. Int J Qual Heal Care. 2016;28(6):665–674. doi: 10.1093/intqhc/mzw091 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 20.Graber MA, Pierre J, Charlton M. Patient opinions and attitudes toward medical student procedures in the emergency department. Acad Emerg Med. 2003;10(12):1329–1333. doi: 10.1111/j.1553-2712.2003.tb00006.x [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 21.Massagli TL, Zumsteg JM, Osorio MB. Quality Improvement Education in Residency Training: A Review. Am J Phys Med Rehabil. 2018. Sep;97(9):673–678. doi: 10.1097/PHM.0000000000000947 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 22.Pelletier M, Belliveau P. Role of surgical residents in undergraduate surgical education. Can J Surg. 1999;42(6):451–456. . [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 23.Ramani S, Mann K, Taylor D, Thampy H. Residents as teachers: Near peer learning in clinical work settings: AMEE Guide No. 106. Med Teach. 2016;38(7):642–655. doi: 10.3109/0142159X.2016.1147540 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 24.Silvestro A, Bozzi M, Massai D, Gennaro BM, Loredana R, Franco Vallicella S. Codice Deontologico Dell’Infermiere 2009. Available from: https://opi.roma.it/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/Codice-Deontologico-2009.pdf. [Google Scholar]
  • 25.Codice di Deontologia medica, 2017. Available from: https://portale.fnomceo.it/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/CODICE-DEONTOLOGIA-MEDICA-2014.pdf.
  • 26.Fineschi V, Turillazzi E, Cateni C. The new Italian code of medical ethics. J Med Ethics. 1997. Aug; 23(4): 239–244. doi: 10.1136/jme.23.4.239 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 27.Unruh KP, Dhulipala SC, Holt GE. Patient Understanding of the Role of the Orthopedic Resident. J Surg Educ. 2013;70(3):345–349. doi: 10.1016/j.jsurg.2013.01.004 [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 28.Ivers N, Jamtvedt G, Flottorp S, Young JM, Odgaard-Jensen J, French SD, et al. Audit and feedback: Effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database Syst Rev. 2012;2012(6). doi: 10.1002/14651858.CD000259.pub3 [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  • 29.Tricarico P, Castriotta L, Battistella C, Bellomo F, Cattani G, Grillone L, et al. Professional attitudes toward incident reporting: Can we measure and compare improvements in patient safety culture? Int J Qual Heal Care. 2017;29(2):243–249. 10.1093/intqhc/mzx004. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Decision Letter 0

Sharon Mary Brownie

18 Jun 2021

PONE-D-21-00656

What patients, healthcare workers, residents and students think about quality of care in an Italian academic hospital?

PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Cecilia Smaniotto,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process.

Please submit your revised manuscript by 20 July. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sharon Mary Brownie

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

When submitting your revision, we need you to address these additional requirements.

1. Please ensure that your manuscript meets PLOS ONE's style requirements, including those for file naming. The PLOS ONE style templates can be found at

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=wjVg/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_main_body.pdf and

https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/file?id=ba62/PLOSOne_formatting_sample_title_authors_affiliations.pdf

2. Please include additional information regarding the survey or questionnaire used in the study and ensure that you have provided sufficient details that others could replicate the analyses. For instance, if you developed a questionnaire as part of this study and it is not under a copyright more restrictive than CC-BY, please include a copy, in both the original language and English, as Supporting Information.

3. We note that you have indicated that data from this study are available upon request. PLOS only allows data to be available upon request if there are legal or ethical restrictions on sharing data publicly. For information on unacceptable data access restrictions, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-unacceptable-data-access-restrictions.

In your revised cover letter, please address the following prompts:

a) If there are ethical or legal restrictions on sharing a de-identified data set, please explain them in detail (e.g., data contain potentially identifying or sensitive patient information) and who has imposed them (e.g., an ethics committee). Please also provide contact information for a data access committee, ethics committee, or other institutional body to which data requests may be sent.

b) If there are no restrictions, please upload the minimal anonymized data set necessary to replicate your study findings as either Supporting Information files or to a stable, public repository and provide us with the relevant URLs, DOIs, or accession numbers. Please see http://www.bmj.com/content/340/bmj.c181.long for guidelines on how to de-identify and prepare clinical data for publication. For a list of acceptable repositories, please see http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/data-availability#loc-recommended-repositories.

We will update your Data Availability statement on your behalf to reflect the information you provide.

4. Please include captions for your Supporting Information files at the end of your manuscript, and update any in-text citations to match accordingly. Please see our Supporting Information guidelines for more information: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/supporting-information.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: No

**********

2. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

3. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

**********

4. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #1: Yes

Reviewer #2: Yes

**********

5. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #1: Thanks for the authors for the focus on quality of care, which I think is a bit neglected research area. The study definitely has a good merit.

Abstract

1. I didn't see and understand what the study design is

2. You mentioned the total questionnaires were 579/1,813, but, if you sum up the total, which is 165/772 HCWs, 111/355 residents, 121/389 students and 200/347 patients it gives 597/1863, can you explain that

Background

1. The background section is a little too much, although it is informative. I would subject narrowing it to less than 2 pages

Data analysis

1. You mentioned Ordered logistic regression were performed. Given that your outcome variable is ordinal it is the appropriate method. However, you didn't write about the assumptions that needs to be satisfied to proceed with ordered logit. The parallel lines assumption should be tested. If it fails, you should conduct generalized ordered logistic regression. This is quiet critical to make sure the results are valid.

Reviewer #2: A paper entitled “What patients, healthcare workers, residents, and students think about the quality of care in an Italian academic hospital?” is seeking to view the quality of care provided in X hospital by involving different stakeholders. Such articles have a good input towards the improvement of health care delivery. Here are some issues I encountered while reviewing the paper.

1. The title of the study is quite different from the body (main content).

2. Since the title is about perception, it is better if it had a qualitative method of data collection coupled with the qualitative one.

3. Line number 29, what is the need for the word “respectively”? What series was it represent?

4. Line number 29, the sum of subjects the study offered was 1863, not 1813 and also response collected was 597, not 579, according to your pieces of data.

5. Line number 113, the Main objective is totally different from the title of the study. The title states about the perception of overall quality of health care, whereas the main objective stated about the perception of different stakeholders towards the attendance of staff on training. The title seems a bit wide, it is better if modification is made based on the objective.

6. The main objective and the specific objective are not addressing well in the study.

7. Line number 141, inclusion criteria state that participants willing to participate in the survey were included whereas one criterion put in the exclusion criteria was a refusal to participate. Since study subjects refuse to can’t fulfill inclusion criteria consequently it cannot be an exclusion criterion.

8. The conclusion is not in accordance with the findings.

9. Line number 163, expected response rate 50%, if the non-respondent rate becomes as high as 50% it will not be representative of the population and also considering those non-respondent characteristics is also important for example if they are homogeneous in character it is difficult to exclude since they have something in common.

10. Line number 179-183, summation error noticed in the total study offered.

11. Line number 179, 1,813 subjects non-respondent rate were not mentioned how much was it?

12. The use of two words/phrases, “staff on training” vs “medical students and residents”, interchangeable are creating a little bit of confusion throughout the paper, better choose one.

Overall title, objective, and body of the manuscript lack coherence.

**********

6. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #1: No

Reviewer #2: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 14;16(10):e0258633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258633.r002

Author response to Decision Letter 0


30 Jul 2021

Udine, July 29th, 2021

To the kind attention of dr. Sharon Mary Brownie (Academic Editor, Plos One),

Please find here enclosed the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Does staff on training have an impact on quality of care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.” by Perri G, d’Angelo M, Smaniotto C, Del Pin M, Ruscio E, Londero C, Brunelli L, Castriotta L, Brusaferro S.

The manuscript now includes the alterations required by Reviewer 1 and Reviewer 2 to better present the research. More specifically, the manuscript has been modified as follows:

a) Reviewer 1:

1) The study design is now more specifically described in the Methods section.

2) The number of collected questionnaires and interviewed subjects is now correct.

3) Data analysis was completed with the explanation and a new reference for the assumptions to use generalised ordered logistic regression.

b) Reviewer 2:

1) The background section has been shortened.

2) A quantitative method of data collection coupled with the qualitative one could be used in the next edition of the study. For the study carried out in 2019, the method used in the pilot study of 2017 was kept.

3) Line 29: “Respectively” has been removed..

4) The number of collected questionnaires and interviewed subjects is now correct.

5) The title has been modified from “What patients, healthcare workers, residents and students think about quality of care in an Italian academic hospital?” to “Does staff on training have an impact on quality of care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.” to better match the main objective.

6) The explanation of main objective and secondary objectives has been modified in order to have a better concordance with both title and main text.

7) Refusing to participate to the study has been removed from the exclusion criteria as being willing to participate is already an inclusion criterion.

8) Conclusions have been modified in order to have a better concordance with results and discussion.

9) Expected response rate for patients was lower than expected response rate for the other stakeholder categories as inpatiens could be unable to partecipate albeit willing, due to their physical or psychological conditions at the moment of the questionnaire collection. Assuming a 70% expected responde rate for inpatients, the minimum number of needed questionnaires would have been 66.

10) Line 175-179: the number of collected questionnaires and interviewed subjects is now correct.

11) Line 269: non-respondent rate is now mentioned.

12) When referring to both categories together, “staff on training” is now used to describe “medical students and residents”.

The minimum anonymised data set to replicate the study is now available as a Supporting Information file. Four Supporting Information files are now available, including two appendixes for questionnaires (Italian and English version). A new table presents the complete results from generalised ordered logistic regression

All authors have read and approved the manuscript. The paper has not been published, and is not under review elsewhere. There are no ethical problems or conflicts of interest.

We thank you in advance for your kind consideration.

With kindest regards

Sincerely Yours,

Cecilia Smaniotto, MD

Corresponding author

Department of Medicine, University of Udine.

Address: Via Colugna 50, 33100 Udine, Italy.

Phone +390432554767. Email: smaniotto.cecilia@spes.uniud.it

Attachment

Submitted filename: Response to reviewers.docx

Decision Letter 1

Sharon Mary Brownie

8 Sep 2021

PONE-D-21-00656R1Does staff on training have an impact on quality of care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.PLOS ONE

Dear Dr. Cecilia Smaniotto,

Thank you for submitting your manuscript to PLOS ONE. After careful consideration, we feel that it has merit but does not fully meet PLOS ONE’s publication criteria as it currently stands. Therefore, we invite you to submit a revised version of the manuscript that addresses the points raised during the review process. Please submit your revised manuscript by 8 October. If you will need more time than this to complete your revisions, please reply to this message or contact the journal office at plosone@plos.org. When you're ready to submit your revision, log on to https://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/ and select the 'Submissions Needing Revision' folder to locate your manuscript file.

Please include the following items when submitting your revised manuscript:

  • A rebuttal letter that responds to each point raised by the academic editor and reviewer(s). You should upload this letter as a separate file labeled 'Response to Reviewers'.

  • A marked-up copy of your manuscript that highlights changes made to the original version. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Revised Manuscript with Track Changes'.

  • An unmarked version of your revised paper without tracked changes. You should upload this as a separate file labeled 'Manuscript'.

If you would like to make changes to your financial disclosure, please include your updated statement in your cover letter. Guidelines for resubmitting your figure files are available below the reviewer comments at the end of this letter.

If applicable, we recommend that you deposit your laboratory protocols in protocols.io to enhance the reproducibility of your results. Protocols.io assigns your protocol its own identifier (DOI) so that it can be cited independently in the future. For instructions see: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/s/submission-guidelines#loc-laboratory-protocols. Additionally, PLOS ONE offers an option for publishing peer-reviewed Lab Protocol articles, which describe protocols hosted on protocols.io. Read more information on sharing protocols at https://plos.org/protocols?utm_medium=editorial-email&utm_source=authorletters&utm_campaign=protocols.

We look forward to receiving your revised manuscript.

Kind regards,

Sharon Mary Brownie

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Journal Requirements:

Please review your reference list to ensure that it is complete and correct. If you have cited papers that have been retracted, please include the rationale for doing so in the manuscript text, or remove these references and replace them with relevant current references. Any changes to the reference list should be mentioned in the rebuttal letter that accompanies your revised manuscript. If you need to cite a retracted article, indicate the article’s retracted status in the References list and also include a citation and full reference for the retraction notice.

Reviewers' comments:

Reviewer's Responses to Questions

Comments to the Author

1. If the authors have adequately addressed your comments raised in a previous round of review and you feel that this manuscript is now acceptable for publication, you may indicate that here to bypass the “Comments to the Author” section, enter your conflict of interest statement in the “Confidential to Editor” section, and submit your "Accept" recommendation.

Reviewer #2: All comments have been addressed

Reviewer #3: All comments have been addressed

**********

2. Is the manuscript technically sound, and do the data support the conclusions?

The manuscript must describe a technically sound piece of scientific research with data that supports the conclusions. Experiments must have been conducted rigorously, with appropriate controls, replication, and sample sizes. The conclusions must be drawn appropriately based on the data presented.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

3. Has the statistical analysis been performed appropriately and rigorously?

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

4. Have the authors made all data underlying the findings in their manuscript fully available?

The PLOS Data policy requires authors to make all data underlying the findings described in their manuscript fully available without restriction, with rare exception (please refer to the Data Availability Statement in the manuscript PDF file). The data should be provided as part of the manuscript or its supporting information, or deposited to a public repository. For example, in addition to summary statistics, the data points behind means, medians and variance measures should be available. If there are restrictions on publicly sharing data—e.g. participant privacy or use of data from a third party—those must be specified.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

5. Is the manuscript presented in an intelligible fashion and written in standard English?

PLOS ONE does not copyedit accepted manuscripts, so the language in submitted articles must be clear, correct, and unambiguous. Any typographical or grammatical errors should be corrected at revision, so please note any specific errors here.

Reviewer #2: Yes

Reviewer #3: Yes

**********

6. Review Comments to the Author

Please use the space provided to explain your answers to the questions above. You may also include additional comments for the author, including concerns about dual publication, research ethics, or publication ethics. (Please upload your review as an attachment if it exceeds 20,000 characters)

Reviewer #2: (No Response)

Reviewer #3: The authors have sufficiently addressed all the reviewers’ comments. However, the manuscript needs some minor revisions. First, in the result section, the authors should clearly highlight which results are referred to from the table 2. It is currently difficult to follow through the results on the table against the results in text. The authors should consider highlight the odds ratio / medians like in the abstract and refer to the table. Second, some typographical and grammatical errors should be corrected including the presentation on “n” in lines 185-193. Third, subtitles should be used in the method section (line 109-148) for better readability and clarity. Fourth, the authors should consider revising the title from "Does staff of training have an impact on quality of care?" to "Do medical students and residents impact the quality of patient care?". Similarly, the reference to "staff of training" should be revised to "medical students and residents" for clarity and readability.

**********

7. PLOS authors have the option to publish the peer review history of their article (what does this mean?). If published, this will include your full peer review and any attached files.

If you choose “no”, your identity will remain anonymous but your review may still be made public.

Do you want your identity to be public for this peer review? For information about this choice, including consent withdrawal, please see our Privacy Policy.

Reviewer #2: No

Reviewer #3: No

[NOTE: If reviewer comments were submitted as an attachment file, they will be attached to this email and accessible via the submission site. Please log into your account, locate the manuscript record, and check for the action link "View Attachments". If this link does not appear, there are no attachment files.]

While revising your submission, please upload your figure files to the Preflight Analysis and Conversion Engine (PACE) digital diagnostic tool, https://pacev2.apexcovantage.com/. PACE helps ensure that figures meet PLOS requirements. To use PACE, you must first register as a user. Registration is free. Then, login and navigate to the UPLOAD tab, where you will find detailed instructions on how to use the tool. If you encounter any issues or have any questions when using PACE, please email PLOS at figures@plos.org. Please note that Supporting Information files do not need this step.

PLoS One. 2021 Oct 14;16(10):e0258633. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0258633.r004

Author response to Decision Letter 1


30 Sep 2021

Udine, September 28th, 2021

To the kind attention of dr. Sharon Mary Brownie (Academic Editor, Plos One),

Please find here enclosed the revised version of the manuscript entitled “Does staff on training have an impact on quality of care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.” by Perri G, d’Angelo M, Smaniotto C, Del Pin M, Ruscio E, Londero C, Brunelli L, Castriotta L, Brusaferro S. It is now entitled “Do medical students and residents impact the quality of patient care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.”

The manuscript now includes the alterations required by Reviewer 3 to better present the research. The manuscript has been modified as follows:

1) The results referred to Table 2 are now more clearly highlighted in the Results section.

2) The errors in line 185-193 have been corrected.

3) More subtitles have been added in the methods section (Design of the study and previous research; Design of the questionnaire and testing phase; Inclusion and exclusion criteria; Data collection).

4) The title has been revised as suggested. Nonetheless, the previous reference to “medical students and residents” has been kept as this was the suggestion of Reviewer 2 in Revision 1, and it was applied throughout the text. The authors can change again the reference back to “staff on training”, however, if this would improve clarity and readability of the article.

All authors have read and approved the manuscript. The paper has not been published, and is not under review elsewhere. There are no ethical problems or conflicts of interest.

We thank you in advance for your kind consideration.

With kindest regards

Sincerely Yours,

Cecilia Smaniotto, MD

Corresponding author

Department of Medicine, University of Udine.

Address: Via Colugna 50, 33100 Udine, Italy.

Phone +390432554767. Email: smaniotto.cecilia@spes.uniud.it

Attachment

Submitted filename: Response to reviewers (30.09.2021).docx

Decision Letter 2

Sharon Mary Brownie

4 Oct 2021

Do medical students and residents impact the quality of patient care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.

PONE-D-21-00656R2

Dear Dr. Cecilia Smaniotto,

We’re pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been judged scientifically suitable for publication and will be formally accepted for publication once it meets all outstanding technical requirements.

Within one week, you’ll receive an e-mail detailing the required amendments. When these have been addressed, you’ll receive a formal acceptance letter and your manuscript will be scheduled for publication.

An invoice for payment will follow shortly after the formal acceptance. To ensure an efficient process, please log into Editorial Manager at http://www.editorialmanager.com/pone/, click the 'Update My Information' link at the top of the page, and double check that your user information is up-to-date. If you have any billing related questions, please contact our Author Billing department directly at authorbilling@plos.org.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please notify them about your upcoming paper to help maximize its impact. If they’ll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team as soon as possible -- no later than 48 hours after receiving the formal acceptance. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information, please contact onepress@plos.org.

Kind regards,

Sharon Mary Brownie

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Editor Comments 

Reviewer comments are satisfactorily addressed

Reviewers' comments:

Acceptance letter

Sharon Mary Brownie

7 Oct 2021

PONE-D-21-00656R2

Do medical students and residents impact the quality of patient care? An assessment from different stakeholders in an Italian academic hospital, 2019.

Dear Dr. Smaniotto:

I'm pleased to inform you that your manuscript has been deemed suitable for publication in PLOS ONE. Congratulations! Your manuscript is now with our production department.

If your institution or institutions have a press office, please let them know about your upcoming paper now to help maximize its impact. If they'll be preparing press materials, please inform our press team within the next 48 hours. Your manuscript will remain under strict press embargo until 2 pm Eastern Time on the date of publication. For more information please contact onepress@plos.org.

If we can help with anything else, please email us at plosone@plos.org.

Thank you for submitting your work to PLOS ONE and supporting open access.

Kind regards,

PLOS ONE Editorial Office Staff

on behalf of

Professor Sharon Mary Brownie

Academic Editor

PLOS ONE

Associated Data

    This section collects any data citations, data availability statements, or supplementary materials included in this article.

    Supplementary Materials

    S1 Table. Perception of staff on training by students, residents, patients and HCWs: Complete results from generalised ordered logistic regression.

    (DOCX)

    S1 Appendix. Questionnaires (English).

    (PDF)

    S2 Appendix. Questionnaires (Italian).

    (PDF)

    S3 Appendix. Data set.

    (XLS)

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Response to reviewers.docx

    Attachment

    Submitted filename: Response to reviewers (30.09.2021).docx

    Data Availability Statement

    All relevant data are within the manuscript and its Supporting Information files.


    Articles from PLoS ONE are provided here courtesy of PLOS

    RESOURCES