Nurses as evaluators of the humanistic behavior of internal medicine residents.
The reliability of a 13-item questionnaire designed to assess the humanistic behaviors of internal medicine residents and the reliability of nurses as raters of those behaviors were examined. Twenty-five residents were evaluated by 10 or 11 nurses on two general medicine services and on cardiology and hematology-oncology services in a large, highly specialized department of internal medicine. Using an application of generalizability theory, which extends beyond classical test theory to establish estimates of multiple-error sources, the investigators calculated reliability-like coefficients for each of the services. The coefficients were .95 and .85 for the two general medicine services, .67 for cardiology, and .88 for hematology-oncology. These findings indicate that the questionnaire is a reliable instrument for assessing humanistic behavior and identifying reliable raters in groups of nurses.
Butterfield
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PS
Division of Research and Evaluation in Medical Education, Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus.
Mazzaferri
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EL
Sachs
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LA
D002983:Clinical Competence; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D007396:Internship and Residency; D007400:Interprofessional Relations; D009726:Nurses; D010817:Physician-Patient Relations; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology*