2.2.2 Ultrasound detection acupuncture course

## 2.2.2.1 Expert advice given during course planning meetings and feedback from trainees

During course planning, several experts suggested that more detailed information about the clinical effects of the advanced application of the GB21 acupoint should be introduced to the trainees, and a half-hour practice session for acupoint selection should be added to the course. As ultrasonography is a relatively unfamiliar technique for Chinese medicine practitioners, in addition to the principles taught in class, the experts also recommended that the trainees be given extra time to practice using the ultrasound machine as per the individual needs of the trainees. The identification of suitable teaching staff for the technique was also important and the process of selection of teaching staff needed to be confirmed.

#### 2.2.3 Reliability and validity analyses

Reliability was determined according to the W value of the questionnaires from the raters. A W value of 0.821 was obtained, and the inter-rater reliability was between 0.71 and 0.9 (P < 0.05), suggesting that the five raters had a high degree of consistency in scoring the performance of the trainees. The results indicated that the ultrasound-guided acupuncture course had an excellent reliability and the design of the teaching materials was appropriate.

The S-CVI values of the five experts were 1, 1, 1, 0.9, and 1, all higher than 0.80, with an overall average of 0.98. This demonstrated that the course had an excellent validity, and that the course design achieved a high standard (Table 3).

Based on the results of the course planning meeting, as well as the reliability and validity analyses, the ultrasound-guided acupuncture course was designed to include four modules, which were taught in four different classes: "Introduction and operation of ASM21", "Advanced clinical application of the GB21 acupoint", "Patient safety and safe acupuncture needle depth", and "Principles and application of ultrasonography".


#### Table 2.

Demographic information of the trainees in this study
