Further confirmation of the psychometric properties of responses to the psychological medicine inventory -student version.
BACKGROUND
The Psychological Medicine Inventory (PMI) was first developed to measure physicians' reported interest level, confidence and perceived ability to address the psychological aspects of patient care. A student version of this scale has since been proposed (PMI-S).


OBJECTIVE
To further examine the psychometric properties of responses to this student version and to confirm a 2-factor response structure.


METHODS
A total of 213 first-year medical students at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev participated in this study. They completed the PMI-S (translated into Hebrew) and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The viability of the 2-factor structure of PMI-S responses was assessed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).


RESULTS
Consistent with the original English language version, CFA supported a 2-factor solution (i.e., psychological abilities and psychological sensitivity). All goodness-of-fit indices were found to be within ideal parameters.


CONCLUSIONS
Results of this study suggest that the PMI-S can be used to assess psychosocial competence and abilities of medical students and to evaluate the effectiveness of psycho-educational programs aimed at improving their psychosocial abilities.
Bachner
Y G
YG
Department of Sociology of Health, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Beer-Sheva, Israel. bachner@bgu.ac.il
O'Rourke
N
N
Castel
H
H
Kushnir
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003625:Data Collection; D003710:Demography; D004501:Education, Medical; D005163:Factor Analysis, Statistical; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007802:Language; D008297:Male; D015233:Models, Statistical; D010820:Physicians / Q000523:psychology; D011594:Psychometrics; D012577:Schools, Medical; D013337:Students, Medical / Q000523:psychology*; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D055815:Young Adult