Spanish adaptation of The Penn State College of Medicine Scale to assess professionalism in medical students

Psychometric properties of the Persian version of Instrument of Professional Attitude for Student Nurses (IPASN)

Aim

To evaluate nursing students’ professionalism attitude, it is necessary to use a validated and reliable instrument.

Design

This study aimed to develop the Persian version of the eight‐dimensional professionalism attitude questionnaire for student nurses (Instrument of Professional Attitude for Student Nurses).

Methods

In this cross‐sectional study during March to April 2017, after being translated into Persian and receiving experts’ comments face, content, and construct validity of the questionnaire were sought among nursing students. Internal consistency reliability was examined by estimating the Cronbach's alpha coefficient and stability was estimated by calculating intraclass correlation coefficinet.

Results

A total of 750 students with an average age of 24.15 (SD = 1.32) years participated in the study. Both exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses confirmed the construct of the questionnaire. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the entire instrument was 0.89 and more than 0.70 for all dimensions.

Also the intraclass correlation coefficient for the questionnaire was found to be 0.92, well above acceptable threshold. The findings approved that the Iranian version of Instrument of Professional Attitude for Student Nurses is a reliable and valid questionnaire. Hence, using this questionnaire to conduct studies is recommended.

Assessing medical professionalism: A systematic review of instruments and their measurement properties

Background

Over the last three decades, various instruments were developed and employed to assess medical professionalism, but their measurement properties have yet to be fully evaluated. This study aimed to systematically evaluate these instruments’ measurement properties and the methodological quality of their related studies within a universally acceptable standardized framework and then provide corresponding recommendations.

Methods

A systematic search of the electronic databases PubMed, Web of Science, and PsycINFO was conducted to collect studies published from 1990–2015. After screening titles, abstracts, and full texts for eligibility, the articles included in this study were classified according to their respective instrument’s usage. A two-phase assessment was conducted: 1) methodological quality was assessed by following the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) checklist; and 2) the quality of measurement properties was assessed according to Terwee’s criteria. Results were integrated using best-evidence synthesis to look for recommendable instruments.

Results

After screening 2,959 records, 74 instruments from 80 existing studies were included. The overall methodological quality of these studies was unsatisfactory, with reasons including but not limited to unknown missing data, inadequate sample sizes, and vague hypotheses. Content validity, cross-cultural validity, and criterion validity were either unreported or negative ratings in most studies. Based on best-evidence synthesis, three instruments were recommended: Hisar’s instrument for nursing students, Nurse Practitioners’ Roles and Competencies Scale, and Perceived Faculty Competency Inventory.

Conclusion

Although instruments measuring medical professionalism are diverse, only a limited number of studies were methodologically sound. Future studies should give priority to systematically improving the performance of existing instruments and to longitudinal studies.