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

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. This psychometric analytical study validation study was carried out at Rawalpindi Medical University from 1 February to 1 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 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. 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). 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.