Specialty Training’s Organizational Readiness for curriculum Change (STORC): validation of a questionnaire

Abstract

Background

The field of postgraduate medical education (PGME) is continuously evolving as a result of social demands and advancing educational insights. Change experts contend that organizational readiness for change (ORC) is a critical precursor for successful implementation of change initiatives. However, in PGME, assessing change readiness is rarely considered while it could be of great value for managing educational change such as curriculum change. Therefore, in a previous Delphi study the authors developed an instrument for assessing ORC in PGME: Specialty Training’s Organizational Readiness for curriculum Change (STORC). In this study, the psychometric properties of this questionnaire were further explored.

Methods

In 2015, STORC was distributed among clinical teaching teams in the Netherlands. The authors conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the internal factor structure of STORC. The reliability of the measurements was estimated by calculating Cronbach’s alpha for all sub-scales. Additionally, a behavioral support-for-change measure was distributed as well to assess correlations with change-related behavior.

Results

In total, the STORC questionnaire was completed by 856 clinical teaching team members from 39 specialties. Factor analysis led to the removal of 1 item but supported the expected factor structure with very good fit for the other 43 items. Supportive behavior was positively correlated to a higher level of ORC.

Discussion

In this study, additional steps to collect validity evidence for the STORC questionnaire were taken successfully. The final subscales of STORC represent the core components of ORC in the literature. By breaking down this concept into multiple measurable aspects, STORC could help to enable educational leaders to diagnose possible hurdles in implementation processes and to perform specifically targeted interventions when needed.

Keywords:

• organizational readiness for change
• postgraduate medical education
• curriculum change
• questionnaire development
• change management

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank all the participating clinical teaching teams for their input and the time they invested, and Lisette van Hulst for her editing assistance.

Author contributions

LB and MJ participated in data collection, after which LB and JL performed the data analysis. LB drafted the manuscript. All authors contributed toward data analysis, drafting and revising the paper and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.

Disclosure

The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work.