BackgroundInterprofessional collaboration (IPC) primarily aims to enhance collaborative skills and to improve the awareness of teamwork and collaborative competencies of health care students. The Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) was used to assess such skills. The aim of this study was to adapt a Chinese version of the RIPLS among Chinese health care students and to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument.MethodsThe questionnaire was translated following a two-step process, comprising forward and backward translations and a pilot test. The Chinese version was tested on a group of students from various health care professions. Cronbach’s α coefficients were calculated for each of the four factors and also for the entire questionnaire in order to evaluate the internal consistency of the Chinese version of the RIPLS.ResultsOf the 295 health care students surveyed, 282 (96.5%) completed the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α coefficient for the overall scale was 0.842. Internal consistencies within each factor were good (α > 0.70) except for the factor “Roles and Responsibilities”, where α = 0.216. Confirmatory factor analysis showed that the data fit the four-factor structure.ConclusionThe Chinese version of the RIPLS was an acceptable instrument for evaluating the attitudes of the health care students in China. The factor “Roles and Responsibilities” requires further scrutiny and development, at least in the Chinese context.

The data suggest that the Chinese version of CSAS developed to assess surgery residents are feasible and provide valid and reliable evidence. Further research is necessary to explore and understand attitudes toward communication skills of surgical residents in China.

ObjectivesThe aims of this study were to develop the Chinese version of the Communication Skills Attitude Scale (CSAS-Ch) in order to test the psychometric properties of the modified instrument.DesignA cross-sectional study was conducted in September 2016 to evaluate the attitudes of Chinese medical students towards communication skills learning using CSAS at China Medical University.ParticipantsThe study recruited 510 fifth-year medical students by cluster sampling.MethodsCronbach’s α coefficients were calculated for the entire questionnaire and for the subscales to evaluate the internal consistency of the CSAS-Ch. In order to determine the structure underlying the CSAS, the scale was factor analysed using maximum likelihood extraction and the oblique rotation method.ResultsOf the 510 medical students, 492 (96.5%) completed the questionnaire. Cronbach’s α coefficient for the CSAS scale was 0.897. Exploratory factor analysis showed that the four-factor structure accounted for 59.8% of the variance and produced an acceptable fit to the data.ConclusionsThe modified CSAS-Ch can be used to evaluate attitudes towards communication skills. Further Future research for improving the teaching methods for communication skills should explore the relationship between medical students’ attitudes and the demographic characteristics.

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