Development and validation of a tool to measure belongingness as a proxy for participation in undergraduate clinical learning.

BACKGROUND

'Participation' in a 'community of practice' is often proposed as a mechanism for clinical learning; however, the use of both terms is variable - ranging from technical to vernacular. Belongingness is a related single concept and development of a tool that measures belongingness may therefore be useful in adding to our understanding of when participation and hence learning takes place in clinical settings.

METHODS

After identifying relevant material from the literature, a draft belongingness assessment tool was developed, based on previously published work. This was piloted on 181 undergraduate medical students and the results subjected to factor analysis. The final version was then used to identify whether differences exist between two different clinical teaching environments.

RESULTS

Our belongingness assessment tool had internal and external validity, with Cronbach's alpha = 0.940, and detected statistically significant differences between primary and secondary care teaching environments.

CONCLUSIONS

The belongingness scale described in this paper is a valid tool for the study of undergraduate medical students. This has the potential to investigate how variation in student experiences of participation in communities of practice influences learning. This tool revealed significant differences in student belongingness between primary and secondary care learning environments.