Dimensionality and reliability of USM pre-clinical medical students' guidance and counselling needs questionnaire

OBJECTIVE: There is no standard mechanism for empathy guidance and counselling for medical students. This study aimed to determine the dimensionality and reliability of a questionnaire developed for establishing guidance and counselling for pre-clinical medical students at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM).

METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among undergraduate medical students of the School of Medical Sciences of USM. The proposed USM Medical Students' Guidance and Counselling Needs (USM-MSGCN) questionnaire is a self-administered instrument that consists of 68 initial items developed from the recommendation of medical students, counsellors, and lecturers in the medical education department. To determine the dimensionality (construct validity) and reliability of the questionnaire, exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha internal consistency reliability analysis were conducted.

RESULTS: A total of 208 students participated in the study. Factor analysis revealed that the items were not unidimensional; four potential constructs could be extracted from the questionnaire, namely, self-leadership (7 items), communication (5 items), learning (5 items), and psychological coping skills (3 items), with factor loading ranges of 0.56-0.82, 0.56-0.88, 0.65-0.84, and 0.79-0.80, respectively. These domains had the following internal consistency reliability (Cronbach's alpha): 0.89, 0.90, 0.87, and 0.87, respectively; the overall alpha value was 0.93.

CONCLUSION: Four factors, with 20 items in the USM-MSGCN questionnaire had good validity and reliability values when administered among the pre-clinical medical students.