Measuring attitudes towards ethnic minority patients: the revalidated REMP-3 instrument for graduate healthcare practitioners

Abstract

Objective Measuring intercultural attitudes can aid in understanding and addressing persistent inequities in healthcare. Instead of creating new instruments, several sources call for a more rigorous revalidation of existing instruments towards a more broad population. As an example of such an existing instrument, the EMP-3 (Ethnic Minority Patients) focuses on the attitudes of physicians towards ethnic minority patients. Starting from a robust theoretical underpinning and a rigorous methodological setup, the present study revalidates the EMP-3 instrument for physicians towards the REMP-3 instrument for graduate healthcare practitioners. Methods We assessed the reliability and validity of the old EMP-3, which we then updated to a new REMP-3 instrument. We used structural equation modeling to model the framework of intercultural effectiveness on two waves of independent data, N 2021 = 368 and N 2022 = 390. Within this framework, we tested the new REMP-3 instrument as an operationalization of intercultural attitudes. We conducted a confirmatory factor analysis on the first wave, after which we made adaptations to the original EMP-3 instrument to obtain a new REMP-3 instrument. The new REMP-3 instrument was then cross-validated using the data of the second wave. Results The new REMP-3 instrument is a psychometric upgrade compared to the EMP-3. The REMP-3 now has a cross-validated structure, with three subscale dimensions (i.e., task perception, background perception and the perceived need to communicate) and an overarching higher-order, full-scale dimension. Both the subscales as well as the full instrument show acceptable to good internal consistency reliability, with a reduced number of items from eighteen to ten. As theoretically predicted, the REMP-3 also functions as a measure of intercultural attitudes in an intercultural competence framework. Conclusion Ultimately, the REMP-3 instrument can contribute to more equity in healthcare by concisely and reliably assessing and monitoring attitudes in healthcare practitioners. This attitude assessment represents the potential of learning new skills and knowledge to address interactions with ethnic minority patients, which is especially useful during training situations like an internship. Supplementary Information The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12939-024-02309-x.