Abstract
BackgroundClinical teaching evaluations are common in health profession education programs to ensure students are receiving a quality clinical education experience. Questionnaires students use to evaluate their clinical teachers have been developed in professions such as medicine and nursing. The development of a questionnaire that is specifically for the osteopathy on-campus, student-led clinic environment is warranted. Previous work developed the 30-item Osteopathy Clinical Teaching Questionnaire. The current study utilised Rasch analysis to investigate the construct validity of the Osteopathy Clinical Teaching Questionnaire and provide evidence for the validity argument through fit to the Rasch model.MethodsSenior osteopathy students at four institutions in Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom rated their clinical teachers using the Osteopathy Clinical Teaching Questionnaire. Three hundred and ninety-nine valid responses were received and the data were evaluated for fit to the Rasch model. Reliability estimations (Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega) were also evaluated for the final model.ResultsThe initial analysis demonstrated the data did not fit the Rasch model. Accordingly, modifications to the questionnaire were made including removing items, removing person responses, and rescoring one item. The final model contained 12 items and fit to the Rasch model was adequate. Support for unidimensionality was demonstrated through both the Principal Components Analysis/t-test, and the Cronbach’s alpha and McDonald’s omega reliability estimates. Analysis of the questionnaire using McDonald’s omega hierarchical supported a general factor (quality of clinical teaching in osteopathy).ConclusionThe evidence for unidimensionality and the presence of a general factor support the calculation of a total score for the questionnaire as a sufficient statistic. Further work is now required to investigate the reliability of the 12-item Osteopathy Clinical Teaching Questionnaire to provide evidence for the validity argument.
Highlights
Clinical teaching evaluations are common in health profession education programs to ensure students are receiving a quality clinical education experience
A Person Separation Index (PSI) of 0.85 or greater is reported to indicate a questionnaire is appropriate for decisionmaking about individuals [54] and the value of 0.827 in the present study suggests that the Osteopathy Clinical Teaching Questionnaire (OCTQ) could be used to make these decisions
The preceding analysis and discussion has provided further evidence to support the developing validity argument for the scores derived from the OCTQ, consistent with Kane’s approach to validity [23]
Summary
Clinical teaching evaluations are common in health profession education programs to ensure students are receiving a quality clinical education experience. Little is known about clinical education in osteopathy in nonUnited States teaching programs beyond the commentary on one Australian osteopathy program by Vaughan et al [1] Allan et al [4] referred to these as ‘university clinics’ These clinics provide students with an opportunity to Vaughan Chiropractic & Manual Therapies (2018) 26:13 develop their work-readiness, and practice the application of skills and knowledge acquired in the classroom in a supervised environment. Each clinical teacher typically supervises between 5 and 7 students at any one time [1] this may be up to 10 students in some instances [5] The evaluation of this teaching is important to ensure students receive appropriate clinical skills education and development
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
