title: Exploring the psychometric properties of the humanistic teaching practices effectiveness questionnaire, an instrument to measure the humanistic qualities of medical teachers.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To describe the development and psychometric properties of the Humanistic Teaching Practices Effectiveness Questionnaire (HTPE), an instrument that measures the humanistic skills of attending physicians within an academic health center (AHC) department of medicine.
  
  
  METHODS
  From August 2005 through March 2007, the authors distributed the HTPE, along with other standard faculty evaluations, to internal medicine and medicine/pediatrics residents at a single midwestern AHC (the Indiana University School of Medicine), in an effort to assess the instrument's validity and reliability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The data set included 886 completed HTPE questionnaires, representing 73% of the 1,212 administered. Exploratory factor analysis demonstrated a single major factor with high internal consistency reliability. The correlation between the HTPE and routine teaching evaluation tools was low. Interrater reliability was only fair (0.17). Total HTPE scores were not significantly different between female and male attending physicians.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The 10-item HTPE provides reliable and valid information on the humanistic teaching practices of internal medicine faculty at a single AHC. The ability to reliably measure these practices provides a framework for understanding and promoting the skills to effectively demonstrate humanism at the bedside and in the clinic. The low correlation between the HTPE and other faculty evaluations suggests that the former measures a unique domain in attending physicians' performance. The HTPE items cluster together as a single construct allowing educators to choose fewer items without compromising reliability; however, moderate interrater reliability indicates that multiple raters are required to produce reliable scores.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Weill Cornell Medical College, New York, New York 10065, USA. lil9051@med.cornell.edu
authors.forename: Lia Suzanne
authors.initials: LS
authors.lastname: Logio
authors.forename: Patrick
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Monahan
authors.forename: Timothy E
authors.initials: TE
authors.lastname: Stump
authors.forename: William T
authors.initials: WT
authors.lastname: Branch
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Frankel
authors.forename: Thomas S
authors.initials: TS
authors.lastname: Inui
mesh_terms: D004501:Education, Medical; D005180:Faculty, Medical; D005260:Female; D006808:Humanism; D006801:Humans; D007388:Internal Medicine / Q000193:education*; D008297:Male; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011594:Psychometrics; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D013663:Teaching