Assessing professional behaviors: a self-administered scale for medical students during clerkships

Chunyu Xin; Xinzhi Song; Simeng Wang; Xuemei Cui; Ning Ding; Deliang Wen

doi:10.1186/s12909-024-05676-9

Assessing professional behaviors: a self-administered scale for medical students during clerkships

BMC Med Educ. 2024 Jun 26;24(1):692. doi: 10.1186/s12909-024-05676-9.

Authors

Chunyu Xin¹, Xinzhi Song¹, Simeng Wang¹, Xuemei Cui¹, Ning Ding², Deliang Wen³

Affiliations

¹ Institute of Health Professions Education Assessment and Reform, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning Province, China.
² Institute of Health Professions Education Assessment and Reform, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning Province, China. nding@cmu.edu.cn.
³ Institute of Health Professions Education Assessment and Reform, China Medical University, No.77 Puhe Road, Shenyang North New Area, Shenyang, 110122, Liaoning Province, China. dlwen@cmu.edu.cn.

Abstract

Background: Medical professionalism is a core competency for medical students during clerkships for further professional development. Given that the behavior-based framework could provide clear insight and is easy to assess, the study aimed to create a self-administered scale to measure the professional behaviors of medical students during their clerkships.

Methods: A comprehensive literature review on medical professional behaviors in English or Chinese and Delphi interviews were used to develop the initial version of the Self-Administered Scale for Professional Behavior of Medical Students During Clerkships. The reliability and validity analysis based on a survey of medical students from China, Cronbach's α calculations, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) specifically were conducted to finalize the scale. The associations of professional behaviors with gender, medical programs, and clerkship duration were examined using Wilcoxon rank-sum tests.

Results: We included 121 studies and extracted 57 medical professionalism assessment tools, initially forming a pool of 48 items. To refine these items, eighteen experts participated in two rounds of Delphi interviews, ultimately narrowing down the item pool to 24 items. A total of 492 participants effectively completed the questionnaire. One item was removed due to its correlated item-total correlation (CITC) value, resulting in a final scale containing 23 items with six domains: Respect, Altruism, Communication and Collaboration, Integrity, Duty, and Excellence. The overall Cronbach's alpha value was 0.98, ranging from 0.88 to 0.95 for each domain. The fit indices (χ²/df = 4.07, CFI = 0.96, TLI = 0.95, RMSEA = 0.08, and SRMR = 0.02) signified a good fit for the six-domain model. Medical students' professional behavior was significantly associated with gender (p = 0.03) and clerkship duration (p = 0.001).

Conclusion: The scale was demonstrated to be reliable and valid in assessing the professional behaviors of Chinese medical students during clerkships.

Keywords: China; Medical professionalism; Medical student during clerkships; Professional behavior; Scale development.

MeSH terms

Adult
China
Clinical Clerkship*
Clinical Competence
Delphi Technique
Female
Humans
Male
Professionalism*
Psychometrics
Reproducibility of Results
Students, Medical* / psychology
Surveys and Questionnaires

Abstract

MeSH terms

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