Validating an adapted questionnaire to measure belongingness of medical students in clinical settings

Abstract

Introduction: Belongingness is a key factor that influences learner development and wellbeing, but no previous research has been performed to evaluate perceived belongingness in medical students whilst on their placements.

Method: The Belongingness Scale-Clinical Placement Experience (BES-CPE) for nursing students was adapted for use with medical students. Following a face validity assessment, 490 undergraduate medical students in years three to five at a UK university were invited to participate and 302 completed the adapted questionnaire. The factor structure was explored using Exploratory Factor Analysis (EFA) with Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and internal consistency was assessed using Cronbach’s alpha.

Results: A three-component structure was identified (Esteem, Connectedness, and Efficacy), which was aligned to the original theoretical model underpinning the scale, and the instrument had high internal consistency. Four items were discarded and the final adapted version had a total of 30.

Conclusions: The adapted BES-CPE instrument for medical students in our sample of UK undergraduate medical students had an appropriate factor structure and high internal consistency. This context-specific instrument can be used for future research as a valid instrument to measure the role of belongingness in medical education and to support developing belongingness in medical students during clinical placements.

Keywords:

• belongingness
• measuring
• medical student
• learning
• questionnaire

PUBLIC INTEREST STATEMENT

Belongingness is how secure and accepted a learner feels in their environment. Educational research provides strong evidence that the level of belongingness a learner feels influences their development. In this paper, we present a questionnaire that will help understand self-reported belongingness of medical students in their clinical placement environment.

Competing interests

The author declares no competing interests.

About the authors

There is a lot of research in education that shows differential attainment amongst learners in medicine by protected characteristics, in particular by race. However, a lot of this research demonstrates differences but struggle to explain the underpinning reasons for this differential achievement. We are interested in investigating whether improving belongingness in learning environments can help to reduce this differential attainment.

Acknowledgements

We thank the respondents.

Practice points

Belongingness is important for learning and wellbeing in clinical placements.

An adapted instrument for medical students was developed and validated.

The adapted instrument has a stable factor structure and high internal consistency.

Additional information

Funding

There were no specific funding to support this work. The authors have no conflict of intersts to declare.

Notes on contributors

Ahoane Qureshi

Ahoane Qureshi is a 4^th Year Student Doctor, Academic Unit of Medical Education, University of Sheffield Medical School, Beech Hill Road, S10 2 RX. United Kingdom.

Emanuele Fino

Emanuele Fino, Senior Lecturer in Psychometrics, Department of Medical Education, Aston Medical School, Birmingham, B4 7ET.

Pirashanthie Vivekananda-Schmidt

Pirashanthie Vivekananda-Schmidt, DPhil, C.Psychol, MA(Ed), SFHEA, AFBPsS; Pirashanthie is Lead for the Professionalism and Patient Safety theme at Sheffield Medical School, Sheffield, S10 2RX. UK. [email protected]. She is a psychologist and medical educationalist with an interest in research that informs developing student potential.

J Sandars

J Sandars MBChB MSc MD MRCP MRCGP FAcadMEd John is Professor of Medical Education at Edgehill University, Faculty of Health Sciences, Ormskirk L39 4QP and has in interest in understanding the complexity of the factors that influence learning in clinical environments.