Literacy Level and Self-Perceived Confidence of using Office Suite Applications among First Year Postgraduate Medical Students

Abstract

Purpose: Basic knowledge of Office Suite Applications (OSA) such as Word Processor, Spreadsheet and Presentation Software is necessary for medical-postgraduate students for their academic and research activities. Our aim was to explore the literacy and self-perceived confidence of the medical-postgraduate students at entry level regarding OSA in a medical college in Delhi.Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the first-year postgraduate students in a medical college in Delhi using a self-administered, structured and pre-validated questionnaire. A Likert scale was used to assess self-perceived confidence among the students. Responses to questions related to various OSA were scored to identify the literacy score for the application. Mann-Whitney U test was applied to find out significance of the observed differences between the median (IQR) literacy scores of the students regarding OSA based on their self-perceived confidence and previous use of the applications.Results: Median (IQR) literacy scores of the students for Word Processor was 2.0 (2.0- 3.0), Spreadsheet was 1.0 (0.0-2.0) and Presentation Software was 3.0 (2.0-4.0). The difference in the median scores of various OSA was statistically significant (Kruskal Wallis test P value <0.001). Although, majority perceived themselves to be confident about the use of Word Processor and Presentation Software, there was no significant difference in their median (IQR) scores over the students who reported themselves to be unconfident about those two OSA.Conclusion: Training medical postgraduate students to use the OSA and boost their self-perceived confidence in using them is required.