Developing a Measure of Students’ Potential Involvement in Scholarly Activities

Abstract

Background: Pharmacy schools must encourage a culture of inquiry so future pharmacists approach practice in a scholarly fashion. Objectives: To develop an instrument measuring intentions to engage in various scholarly activities. Methods: Items representing scholarly activities relevant to pharmacists were developed. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was used to refine the list and identify underlying factors. Internal consistency was examined using Cronbach’s alpha. Results were compared across student characteristics using unpaired t tests and 1-way analysis of variance. Key Findings: The initial list of 54 items was reduced to 31 after review and then administered to 381 pharmacy students (337 complete responses; 88% response rate). EFA suggested 3 factors with 4 items being removed due to low factor loadings. The final Potential Involvement in Scholarly Activities (PISA) instrument contained 27 items in 3 domains: research activities (13 items), professional writing (9 items), and practice evaluation/quality improvement (5 items). Cronbach’s alphas were ≥0.85 for the total scale and domains. PISA scores were statistically higher for first-year students and those with previous research experience or post-graduate training interests. Conclusions: Initial development of the PISA instrument suggested a 3-factor structure with acceptable internal consistency in this sample. Continued work is needed to examine the instrument in more diverse samples.