Nurses as evaluators of the humanistic behavior of internal medicine residents

J Med Educ. 1987 Oct;62(10):842-9. doi: 10.1097/00001888-198710000-00008.

Abstract

The reliability of a 13-item questionnaire designed to assess the humanistic behaviors of internal medicine residents and the reliability of nurses as raters of those behaviors were examined. Twenty-five residents were evaluated by 10 or 11 nurses on two general medicine services and on cardiology and hematology-oncology services in a large, highly specialized department of internal medicine. Using an application of generalizability theory, which extends beyond classical test theory to establish estimates of multiple-error sources, the investigators calculated reliability-like coefficients for each of the services. The coefficients were .95 and .85 for the two general medicine services, .67 for cardiology, and .88 for hematology-oncology. These findings indicate that the questionnaire is a reliable instrument for assessing humanistic behavior and identifying reliable raters in groups of nurses.

MeSH terms

  • Clinical Competence
  • Humanism*
  • Humans
  • Internal Medicine / education*
  • Internship and Residency*
  • Interprofessional Relations
  • Nurses*
  • Physician-Patient Relations
  • Physicians / psychology*