Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale
Abstract Background Social media permeated everyday life and consequently it brought some changes to behaviour of health professionals. New form of professionalism emerged called e-professionalism depicting professional behaviour while using social media. There are a number of studies conducted in t...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
BMC
2021-08-01
|
| Series: | BMC Medical Education |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02879-2 |
| _version_ | 1818601120885374976 |
|---|---|
| author | Marko Marelić Joško Viskić Lovela Machala Poplašen Danko Relić Dražen Jokić Tea Vukušić Rukavina |
| author_facet | Marko Marelić Joško Viskić Lovela Machala Poplašen Danko Relić Dražen Jokić Tea Vukušić Rukavina |
| author_sort | Marko Marelić |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Background Social media permeated everyday life and consequently it brought some changes to behaviour of health professionals. New form of professionalism emerged called e-professionalism depicting professional behaviour while using social media. There are a number of studies conducted in the past several years measuring behaviour of different populations of health professionals on social media and social media sites. Many studies have investigated aspects of e-professionalism of medical or dental students as future health professionals, but there are no validated instruments made for assessing attitude towards e-professionalism of those two populations. Objective of this paper is to validate a newly developed scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students. Methods The original 32-item scale was developed and administered to 411 medical students (RR 69%), and 287 dental students (RR 49.7%). Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the existence of underlying factors. Principal component analysis was used as an extraction method with oblimin as selected oblique rotation method. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability. Results Total of 698 student answers entered analysis. The final scale had 24 items that formed seven factors named: ethical aspects, dangers of social media, excluding physicians, freedom of choice, importance of professionalism, physicians in the digital age, negative consequences. Cronbach’s alpha indicating scale reliability was .72. Reliability conducted on each factor ranged from .570 to .877. Conclusions The scale measures seven factors of attitude towards e-professionalism and exhibits satisfactory reliability. Based on insights from validation, some possible improvements are suggested. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-16T12:46:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-4bd0e0541b354670881369f4eb53e187 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1472-6920 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-16T12:46:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | BMC |
| record_format | Article |
| series | BMC Medical Education |
| spelling | doaj.art-4bd0e0541b354670881369f4eb53e1872022-12-21T22:31:17ZengBMCBMC Medical Education1472-69202021-08-0121111010.1186/s12909-021-02879-2Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scaleMarko Marelić0Joško Viskić1Lovela Machala Poplašen2Danko Relić3Dražen Jokić4Tea Vukušić Rukavina5School of Medicine, University of ZagrebSchool of Dental Medicine, University of ZagrebSchool of Medicine, University of ZagrebSchool of Medicine, University of ZagrebSchool of Dental Medicine, University of ZagrebSchool of Medicine, University of ZagrebAbstract Background Social media permeated everyday life and consequently it brought some changes to behaviour of health professionals. New form of professionalism emerged called e-professionalism depicting professional behaviour while using social media. There are a number of studies conducted in the past several years measuring behaviour of different populations of health professionals on social media and social media sites. Many studies have investigated aspects of e-professionalism of medical or dental students as future health professionals, but there are no validated instruments made for assessing attitude towards e-professionalism of those two populations. Objective of this paper is to validate a newly developed scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students. Methods The original 32-item scale was developed and administered to 411 medical students (RR 69%), and 287 dental students (RR 49.7%). Exploratory factor analysis was used to investigate the existence of underlying factors. Principal component analysis was used as an extraction method with oblimin as selected oblique rotation method. Cronbach’s alpha was used to assess reliability. Results Total of 698 student answers entered analysis. The final scale had 24 items that formed seven factors named: ethical aspects, dangers of social media, excluding physicians, freedom of choice, importance of professionalism, physicians in the digital age, negative consequences. Cronbach’s alpha indicating scale reliability was .72. Reliability conducted on each factor ranged from .570 to .877. Conclusions The scale measures seven factors of attitude towards e-professionalism and exhibits satisfactory reliability. Based on insights from validation, some possible improvements are suggested.https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02879-2E-professionalismFactor analysisAttitude scaleValidationSocial media, dental students, medical students |
| spellingShingle | Marko Marelić Joško Viskić Lovela Machala Poplašen Danko Relić Dražen Jokić Tea Vukušić Rukavina Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale BMC Medical Education E-professionalism Factor analysis Attitude scale Validation Social media, dental students, medical students |
| title | Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale |
| title_full | Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale |
| title_fullStr | Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale |
| title_full_unstemmed | Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale |
| title_short | Development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e-professionalism among medical and dental students: SMePROF-S scale |
| title_sort | development and validation of scale for measuring attitudes towards e professionalism among medical and dental students smeprof s scale |
| topic | E-professionalism Factor analysis Attitude scale Validation Social media, dental students, medical students |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-021-02879-2 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT markomarelic developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale AT joskoviskic developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale AT lovelamachalapoplasen developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale AT dankorelic developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale AT drazenjokic developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale AT teavukusicrukavina developmentandvalidationofscaleformeasuringattitudestowardseprofessionalismamongmedicalanddentalstudentssmeprofsscale |