Development and testing of an instrument to assess behavioral professionalism of pharmacy students

The purpose of this project was to develop and test a practical and reliable instrument to assess behavioral aspects of professionalism of pharmacy students. Pharmacy externship and clerkship evaluation forms were collected from 18 schools of pharmacy. From these forms and related literature, items measuring professional behavior were extracted, pooled and categorized. A 38-item instrument was created from this pool of items believed to represent seven dimensions: standards, responsibility, competence, maturity, initiative, appearance and interpersonal/communication skills. The instrument was reviewed by 90 experiential program coordinators and preceptors from 49 schools of pharmacy. Reviewers were asked to rate each item\u27s importance in measuring professional behavior as it pertains to students participating in experiential rotations using a five-point importance rating scale: extremely important, very important, moderately important, slightly important and not at all important. Based on reviewers\u27 ratings and suggestions for item modifications, the instrument was revised to 37 items. Most items were reworded but conceptual meaning remained the same. The instrument was administered to 156 Purdue pharmacy students and their preceptors participating in experiential rotations during Spring semester 1998. Ninety-three percent of student/preceptor pairs completed and returned the instrument (N = 113). Preceptors\u27 data were used for analysis; the instrument had a Cronbach\u27s alpha = 0.98. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) indicated that instrument could be reduced to 25 items without compromising conceptual integrity, representing four factors: responsibility, interpersonal relations/social skills, communication skills, and appearance. The revised instrument was distributed to 994 student/preceptor pairs from 17 schools of pharmacy during the summer of 1998. Sixty percent of students (N = 597) and 65% of preceptors (N = 647) returned their completed instrument. Analysis of preceptors\u27 data indicated Cronbach\u27s alpha = 0.97; exploratory factor analysis showed that items loaded on the same four factors. EFA and regression analysis indicated that the instrument could be reduced to ten items. This instrument appears to have strong content validity as assessed by experts, high reliability and a solid factor structure as indicated by two exploratory factor analyses. Further refinement and testing of this instrument could lead to development of a more comprehensive measure of students\u27 professionalism with potential use throughout pharmacy curricula, other disciplines and professions