Specialty Training’s Organizational Readiness for curriculum Change (STORC): validation of a questionnaire

Background: The field of postgraduate medical education (PGME) is continuously evolving as a result of social demands and advancing educational insights. Change experts contend that organizational readiness for change (ORC) is a critical precursor for successful implementa- tion of change initiatives. However, in PGME, assessing change readiness is rarely considered while it could be of great value for managing educational change such as curriculum change. Therefore, in a previous Delphi study the authors developed an instrument for assessing ORC in PGME: Specialty Training’s Organizational Readiness for curriculum Change (STORC). In this study, the psychometric properties of this questionnaire were further explored. Methods: In 2015, STORC was distributed among clinical teaching teams in the Netherlands. The authors conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the internal factor structure of STORC. The reliability of the measurements was estimated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha for all sub- scales. Additionally, a behavioral support-for-change measure was distributed as well to assess correlations with change-related behavior. Results: In total, the STORC questionnaire was completed by 856 clinical teaching team mem- bers from 39 specialties. Factor analysis led to the removal of 1 item but supported the expected factor structure with very good fit for the other 43 items. Supportive behavior was positively correlated to a higher level of ORC. Discussion: In this study, additional steps to collect validity evidence for the STORC question- naire were taken successfully. The final subscales of STORC represent the core components of ORC in the literature. By breaking down this concept into multiple measurable aspects, STORC could help t