Developing a Preliminarily Validated Competency-Based Integrative Oncology Training Questionnaire

Implementing clinical integrative oncology (IO) guidelines requires training healthcare providers (HCPs).

We developed and preliminarily validated a questionnaire assessing baseline core clinical IO competencies (CCC-IO) among HCP trainees.

The CCC-IO questionnaire was developed by an international multidisciplinary team and examined for reliability and validity in a cross-sectional study, nested within a randomized controlled trial of a national competency-based medical education (CBME) IO training program. Pretraining questionnaires, administered at baseline following randomization, examined 20 IO-related trainee-perceived competencies from five domains: Risks/Contraindications, Intercultural Challenges, Data Mining for herbal medicine, Anxiety Relief using Mind-Body Practices, and Acupressure for Pain Relief. Trainees were randomized to a CBME-focused training group, a Clerkship group, observing clinical IO practices, and candidates for future training (controls). Reliability was tested by Cronbach's alpha, validity using preliminary exploratory factor analysis (EFA).

A total of 109 pretraining questionnaires were completed (CBME group, 33; Clerkship, 30; controls, 46), with no between-group differences for sociodemographic characteristics, total domain scores, and overall scores for all 20 IO competencies. EFA identified five domains, with Anxiety Relief providing the highest explanatory rate (52.39%). Cronbach's alpha for each domain in all groups ranged from 0.78 to 0.97, with a value of 0.95 for the entire cohort (CBME group, 0.94; Clerkship group, 0.92; controls, 0.97).

The CCC-IO tool showed construct validity and high reliability, supporting its use for baseline assessment of HCP trainees' clinical competencies in an intensive national IO training program. Future research needs to examine the tool's use in other palliative care settings, cultures, and languages.