A validated survey on professionalism among anesthetist in private & government hospitals in Malaysia

Abstract

Introduction: Professionalism is the basis of medicine’s contract with society as defined by the Physician’s charter. Although there have been significant efforts in teaching said subject among the medical community, efforts to objectively assess professionalism among anaesthetists remains elusive. Several studies done have indicated communication, ethics & compassion are part of what defines a professional anaesthetist. We have hence created a questionnaire that probes on how professionalism can be assessed among anaesthetists in Malaysia. Methods: This is a randomised multicenter cross-sectional study among doctors in anaesthesia in private & government hospitals to validate a self-created questionnaire of 37 items which had its face validity done prior with a panel of 4 experts. Inclusion criteria were doctors in anaesthesia for more than one year. The study was conducted in International Islamic University of Malaysia Medical Center, Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun Ipoh, Hospital Kuala Lumpur Results: There were 227 respondents with a total of 158 (69.6%) of respondents from government hospitals and 30.4% (69 respondents) from university hospital. The factor analysis gave a total of 3 main components, knowledge, attitude and practice with 3 of the 37 items not achieving good loading factors. The internal consistency (Cronbach alpha) for each component was good except for knowledge (Cronbach alpha of 0.282) Conclusions: The survey for professionalism among anaesthetist in private and government hospitals is valid with good internal consistency.