Development and validation of an instrument for assessment of professional behaviour during laboratory sessions

To develop an instrument to assess professional behaviour among medical students, and to determine its validity, reliability, feasibility and acceptability.

This cross-sectional study was conducted at Bahria University Medical and Dental College, Karachi, from July to September 2017, and comprised of medical students in years 1 and 2 of their academic programme. The instrument was developed for the Physiology laboratory sessions using nominal group technique and was tested for validity, reliability, feasibility and acceptability by two assessors through validity and reliability statistics. Data was analysed using SPSS 23.

Of the 250 students enrolled, 232(92.8%) had their assessment completed. Applicability of the scale was indicated by exploratory factor analysis. Two factors were isolated which explained 57.65% of the variation. The first factor, comprising of 7 sub-factors, was labelled as 'practical performance', and the second factor, consisting of 5 sub-factors, as 'personal interactions'. A final 12-item instrument was retained. Cronbach's alpha was determined to be high at 0.863. Intra class correlation was 0.863 for both years 1 and 2 combined.

It was possible to develop an instrument for professional behaviour assessment in Physiology laboratory skills session which could indicate valid, reliable, feasible and acceptable results.