Assessment of Medical Professionalism: Development and psychometric analysis of Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) in Pakistani context using Delphi Techniques

OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop and assess the content validity along with the reliability of a Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT) with an intention to measure professionalism among undergraduate medical students. METHODS: This psychometric analytical study validation study was carried out at Rawalpindi Medical University from 1(st) February to 1(st) June, 2021 after establishing feasibility and obtaining ethical approval. The non-probability convince sampling was employed to collect data. Using Nunnally’s, the ratio of e subjects per item was selected, as our preliminary tool has 48 items so 384 sample size was estimated for scale validation. The preliminary 48-item tool with five subscales(cSS) developed through mutual consensus by the Delphi technique namely Communication skill(cSS1),-7 item, Accountability(cSS2)-8 item, Altruism(cSS3)-13 item, Self-Directed Learning (cSS4)-10 item and Ethics(cSS5),-10 item was labelled as Professionalism Assessment Tool (PAT). The tool was administered to 4(th) year MBBS students, the data obtained was analyzed by calculating Cronbach’s alpha to estimate the reliability. The SPSS version 26 was used for data analysis. RESULTS: The 48-item PAT had an overall reliability (Cronbach’s alpha) of 0.783. The Reliability of the new Subscales were communication skills (0.405), self-directed learning (0.527), Accountability (0.378), Altruism (0.486) and Ethics (0.715). CONCLUSION: The final tool developed for assessment of professionalism had 48 items on a seven point Likert like scale, across five Subscales. Results showed that it was determined as a useful tool in assessing professionalism in undergraduate medical students to generate reliable results for valid decision-making.