Validity and reliability of the Vietnamese Physician Professional Values Scale

Abstract

Physician values influence a physician’s clinical practice and level of medical professionalism. Currently, there is no psychometrically valid scale to assess physician values in Vietnam. This study assessed the initial validity and reliability of the Vietnamese Physician Professional Values Scale (VPPVS). Hartung’s original Physician Values in Practice Scale (PVIPS) was translated from English into Vietnamese and adapted to reflect the cultural values of Vietnamese physicians. A sample of clinical experts reviewed the VPPVS to ensure face and content validity of the scale, resulting in a draft 37-item measure. A cross-sectional survey of 1086 physicians from Hanoi, Hue and Ho Chi Minh City completed a self-report survey, which included the draft of the VPPVS. Exploratory Factor Analysis was used to assess construct validity, resulting in 35 items assessing physician’s professional values across five main factors: lifestyle, professionalism, prestige, management and finance. The final five-factor scale illustrated acceptable internal consistency, with Cronbach’s alpha coefficients ranging from 0.73 to 0.86 and all item-total correlations >0.2. Limited floor or ceiling effects were found. This study supports the application of the VPPVS to measure medical professional values of Vietnamese physicians. Future studies should further assess the psychometric properties of the VPPVS using large samples.

Keywords:

• physician values
• medical professionalism
• validity
• reliability
• Vietnam

Acknowledgement

We gratefully acknowledge the support provided by the Department of Ethics and Social Medicine, Hanoi Medical University, Vietnam. We would also like to thank the participation of the physicians involved in this research, without whom this study would not have been possible.

Funding

We would like to acknowledge the funding support received from Hanoi Medical University and the Atlantic Philanthropy Foundation [grant number 19361]. Alix Hall was previously supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and a 2012 Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: We would like to acknowledge the funding support received from Hanoi Medical University and the Atlantic Philanthropy Foundation [grant number 19361]. Alix Hall was previously supported by an Australian Postgraduate Award and a 2012 Prime Minister's Australia Asia Endeavour Postgraduate Award.