Introducing the Professionalism Mini-evaluation Exercise in Undergraduate Medical Training in India: A Validity and...

Professionalism Mini-Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) has demonstrated valid evidence in assessing the construct, professionalism, in resident training. As the Indian medical regulatory body has introduced "professional" as one of the seven roles of Indian Medical Graduate and as cultural and social differences affect professionalism of students' cohort across geographical regions, this study was undertaken to establish P-MEX's validity, reliability, and feasibility in assessing the construct, professionalism, in undergraduate medical students (UMSs) in India.

This multicentric study assessed the final phase-2 (5^th year) UMSs for the construct of professionalism using a 24-item P-MEX questionnaire during various clinical encounters. Construct validity was established by performing exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) through structural equation modeling. Cronbach's alpha values defined the reliability of the questionnaire.

The item mean score for the 697 collected P-MEX questionnaires ranged from 2.57 to 3.24 out of 4. EFA conducted using principal component analysis with item-component loading of 0.5 and above with Varimax rotation gave a 5-factor, 21-item solution. However, the CFA suggested a 4-factor, 18-item solution which was then confirmed by a rerun of the CFA.

The CFA suggests that the 18-item, 4-factor questionnaire is a good fit solution for assessing the construct, professionalism, in UMSs in Indian context.