Further confirmation of the psychometric properties of responses to the psychological medicine inventory -student version

The Psychological Medicine Inventory (PMI) was first developed to measure physicians' reported interest level, confidence and perceived ability to address the psychological aspects of patient care. A student version of this scale has since been proposed (PMI-S). To further examine the psychometric properties of responses to this student version and to confirm a 2-factor response structure. A total of 213 first-year medical students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev participated in this study. They completed the PMI-S (translated into Hebrew) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The viability of the 2-factor structure of PMI-S responses was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA). Consistent with the original English language version, CFA supported a 2-factor solution (i.e., psychological abilities and psychological sensitivity). All goodness-of-fit indices were found to be within ideal parameters. Results of this study suggest that the PMI-S can be used to assess psychosocial competence and abilities of medical students and to evaluate the effectiveness of psycho-educational programs aimed at improving their psychosocial abilities.