Student's Inventory of Professionalism (SIP): A tool to assess attitudes towards professional development based on palliative care undergraduate education

Abstract

Introduction: Quality medical education, centered on a patient's needs, is crucial to develop the health professionals that our society requires. Research suggests a strong contribution of palliative care education to professionalism. The aim of this study was to design and validate a self-report inventory to measure student's professional development. Method: Sequential exploratory strategy mixed method. The inventory is built based on the themes that emerged from the analysis of four qualitative studies about nursing and medical students' perceptions related to palliative care teaching interventions (see Ballesteros et al. 2014, Centeno et al. 2014 and 2017, Rojí et al. 2017). The structure and psychometrics of the inventory obtained is tested in two different surveys with two different groups of medical students. Inventory reliability and construct validity are tested in the first survey group. To verify the inventory structure, a confirmatory factor analysis is performed in a second survey group. Results: The inventory has 33 items and seven dimensions: a holistic approach, caring for and understanding the patient, personal growth, teamwork, decision-making, patient evaluation, and being a health care professional. Cronbach's-alpha was 0.73-0.84 in all seven domains, ICC: 0.95. The confirmatory factor analysis comparative fit index (CFI) was 1 with a standardized root mean square Index 0.088 (SRMR) and obtained a 0.99 goodness-of-fit R-square coefficient. Conclusions: this new inventory is grounded on student's palliative care teaching experiences and seems to be valid to assess student's professional development.