Psychometrics of the scale of attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaboration: a study with medical students.

Background: Despite the emphasis placed on interdisciplinary education and interprofessional collaboration between physicians and pharmacologists, no psychometrically sound instrument is available to measure attitudes toward collaborative relationships.

Aim: This study was designed to examine psychometrics of an instrument for measuring attitudes toward physician-pharmacist collaborative relationships for administration to students in medical and pharmacy schools and to physicians and pharmacists.

Methods: The Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Pharmacist Collaboration was completed by 210 students at Jefferson Medical College. Factor analysis and correlational methods were used to examine psychometrics of the instrument.

Results: Consistent with the conceptual framework of interprofessional collaboration, three underlying constructs, namely "responsibility and accountability;" "shared authority;" and "interdisciplinary education" emerged from the factor analysis of the instrument providing support for its construct validity. The reliability coefficient alpha for the instrument was 0.90. The instrument's criterion-related validity coefficient with scores of a validated instrument (Jefferson Scale of Attitudes Toward Physician-Nurse Collaboration) was 0.70.

Conclusions: Findings provide support for the validity and reliability of the instrument for medical students. The instrument has the potential to be used for the evaluation of interdisciplinary education in medical and pharmacy schools, and for the evaluation of patient outcomes resulting from collaborative physician-pharmacist relationships.