Translation and cultural adaptation of the Japanese version of the interprofessional facilitation scale

ABSTRACT

Effective interaction in interprofessional collaboration requires skills in interprofessional facilitation. The need for interprofessional learning and practice in Japan is highlighted by Japan’s status as one of the most rapidly aging societies because good care for elderly people with complex needs requires effective collaboration between different professional groups. The development of interprofessional facilitation skills (including management of the additional complexities) among learners or professionals enhances interprofessional learning and consensus building and empowers them to make appropriate commitments when faced with difficult challenges. The 18-item interprofessional facilitation scale (IPFS) can be used to enhance interprofessional facilitation skills. Here, we aimed to develop a Japanese adapted version of the IPFS and to validate it for use with Japanese healthcare professionals. Consistent with guidelines for cross-cultural adaptation, three translators translated the original IPFS from English into Japanese, and an expert and all authors confirmed its face and content validity. The translated items were amended during backtranslation and expert reviews. Exploratory factor analysis was performed with 167 healthcare professionals to explore the underlying structure of the items. This analysis revealed two factors with good internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha > 0.8), which were labelled as: (1) encouraging interprofessional interaction and (2) respect for each professional. The original factor ‘Encouraging interprofessional interaction’ was divided into two factors in the study. One reason for this division might be related to the behaviour of Japanese health professionals, that is, most Japanese might understand that ‘facilitation’ encourages relationships as contextual belonging that are distinct from relationships based on respect for others. This mindset is likely based on the notion of ‘relationalism’, which is fundamental in Japanese culture. Further investigation of this Japanese version of the IPFS will strengthen factor construction and improve scrutiny of the relationships between factors.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-cultural adaptation
• exploratory factor analysis
• Japan
• interprofessional education
• interprofessional facilitation scale

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Dr. J. Sargeant for permission to develop a Japanese version from the original version; M. Toyota for the translation into Japanese; M. Otsuka for her expert review, face, and content validity; and K. Kitamura for helpful advice and discussions.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, culture, sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and Doctors for Communities (DOCS)—fostering research-minded general physicians from Ministry of Education, culture, sports, Science and Technology New Paradigms—establishing centers for fostering medical researchers of the future, and JPJSPS KAKENHI grant number 2459062 grant-in-aid for scientific research (C).

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Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, culture, sports, Science and Technology of Japan, and Doctors for Communities (DOCS)—fostering research-minded general physicians from Ministry of Education, culture, sports, Science and Technology New Paradigms—establishing centers for fostering medical researchers of the future, and JPJSPS KAKENHI grant number 2459062 grant-in-aid for scientific research (C).