Investigating the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy in a sample of Malaysian medical students
Investigating the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy in a sample of Malaysian medical students
Blog Article
Marija Spasenoska,1 Shane Costello,1 RAW GINGER SHINE HONEY Brett Williams2 1Faculty of Education, 2Department of Community Emergency Health and Paramedic Practice, Monash University, Melbourne, VIC, Australia Objective: The purpose of this present study was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy – student version (JSPE-S).Subjects and methods: This study recruited 193 Malaysian medical students enrolled in year one and year two studies.A principal-component analysis with Varimax rotation was conducted.
Procrustes rotation was used to confirm the item to model fit, which allows for a comparison of actual structure against an ideal hypothesized structure.Items were systematically removed based on low communalities of < 0.3 and poor loading of items onto components.
Results: A two-component solution was found, comprised of “perspective taking” and “compassionate care”.Following item removal, eleven items remained.A Procrustes analysis revealed that this eleven-item measure demonstrated an excellent model fit.
A possible third component was identified, though is not recommended for use, due to construct underrepresentation.Conclusion: COPPER This study found the Jefferson Scale of Physician Empathy fitted best to a two-component model using eleven items.Item, component, and overall congruence were very high, and scale reliabilities were adequate.
The results of this study suggest that the eleven-item, two-component solution demonstrates excellent psychometric properties and structural validity in a Malaysian medical student population.Future research could consider using the short eleven-item measure in both student and health care profession samples to investigate the role of empathy in health care.Keywords: empathy, medical students, psychometrics.