Development and Validation of a Clinical Practicum Assessment Tool for the NAACLS-Accredited Biomedical Science...

Student perspectives on their final year clinical placements in biomedical sciences at Qatar University are assessed using the clinical practicum assessment tool (CPAT), which was developed in-house following accreditation body requirements. The tool, which we call the CPAT-Qatar University (CPAT-QU), covers the three clinical practicum domains: practicum content, preceptors, and competencies. Here, we validate this tool. The CPAT-QU has 27 Likert-scale questions and free-text open questions. CPAT-QU readability was calculated using the Flesch-Kincaid Reading Ease (FKRE) instrument. Content validity was assessed using the average and universal average scale-level content validity indices (S-CVI/Average and S-CVI/UA). For construct validity, 50 employed graduates who had completed the practicum were consented for study participation, and the validity was calculated by a principal component analysis (PCA). Reliability was analyzed by Cronbach's alpha. The S-CVI/Average and S-CVI/UA were 0.90 and 0.59, respectively, indicating that an adequate proportion of the content was relevant. The PCA extracted two core components, which explained 63% of the variance in the CPAT-QU. Cronbach's alpha values for the items were within the acceptable range of 0.60-1.00, showing that internal consistency has a good level. CPAT-QU appears to be a useful tool for assessing student perspectives on their clinical placements; however, construct validity needs continuous improvement.