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Published on: April 23, 2014
Development and initial validation of a measure of intention to stay in academia for physician assistant faculty
Karen Graham1, Svetlana Beltyukova
1Karen Graham, PhD, PA-C, is a clinical associate professor at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse Gundersen Mayo PA Program in La Crosse, Wisconsin. Svetlana Beltyukova, PhD, is a professor in the Research and Measurements program at the University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio.
Purpose:
The purpose of this research was to construct and validate a measure of "intention to stay in academia" for physician assistant faculty members.
Methods:
The 70-item instrument was developed through a literature review, a qualitative investigation of how experienced physician assistant faculty members conceptualized "intention to stay in academia," and an expert review of survey items. The items were pilot tested on a convenience sample of 53 faculty members from 9 physician assistant programs; the revised survey was then administered to all 1002 physician assistant program faculty members in the United States with physician assistant credentials. Rasch analyses were conducted to examine psychometric properties of the measure and collect evidence of validity.
Results:
The national survey had a 48% response rate, and participants were representative of all physician assistant faculty members. Although the overall instrument demonstrated acceptable construct coverage, good reliability estimates, and adequate fit statistics for the majority of the items, only 36.5% of the variance in the data could be explained by the measure. A subset of 19 items relating to a supportive academic environment ("Supportive Environment" scale) was extracted and met the expectations of the Rasch model.
Conclusions:
The Supportive Environment scale produced a meaningful progression of indicators of "intention to stay in academia" for physician assistant faculty members and demonstrated characteristics of a linear measure. Administrators can make valid inferences regarding physician assistant faculty intention to stay from the subscale analysis.
