Department of Rheumatology and Immunology, Singapore General Hospital, 20 College Road, Singapore, 169856, Singapore.
Duke-NUS Medical School, Singapore, Singapore.
BMC Med Educ. 2020 Jul 14;20(1):225. doi: 10.1186/s12909-020-02147-9.
The importance of medical professionalism and its assessment has been well documented in the literature. However, there is currently no culturally-adapted tool to assess medical professionalism in Singapore. This study sets out to find consensus on relevance of the items from the Professionalism Mini Evaluation Exercise (P-MEX) for assessing medical professionalism in Singapore.
A two-round Delphi survey was completed by an expert panel consisting of program directors, associate designated institutional officials, and designated institutional official (n = 15) from residency programs in Singapore. Round 1 comprised of 23 items from the P-MEX rated on a 5-point scale (1 = Definitely include, 2 = Possibly include, 3 = Neutral, 4 = Possibly exclude, 5 = Definitely exclude). In round 2, the experts received feedback from the previous round, and were asked to re-rate the items which did not achieve consensus in the previous round. The threshold for consensus in the study was defined as 70% or greater agreement among experts.
Completed questionnaires for both rounds were received from all 15 experts. In round 1, 18 items (78%) achieved consensus to be included. In round 2, 1 (4%) item achieved consensus to be included. However, none of the remaining items achieved consensus to be removed, and they exhibited stability in responses. A list of 19 items covering four domains of medical professionalism (Doctor-patient relationship skills, Reflective skills, Time management and Inter-professional relationship skills) was obtained during the two-rounds of Delphi survey.
Nineteen items in the P-MEX had garnered consensus and is suitable for assessing medical professionalism in Singapore. The findings of this study can provide guidance for faculty and institutions who want to assess medical professionalism of their medical trainees.
医学专业精神及其评估的重要性在文献中已有充分记录。然而，目前新加坡没有适用于评估医学专业精神的文化适应工具。本研究旨在就《专业精神迷你评估练习》（P-MEX）中评估新加坡医学专业精神的项目的相关性达成共识。
由来自新加坡住院医师计划的项目主任、副主任指定机构官员和指定机构官员（n=15）组成的专家小组完成了两轮 Delphi 调查。第一轮包括 P-MEX 的 23 个项目，这些项目在 5 分制上进行评分（1=肯定包括，2=可能包括，3=中立，4=可能排除，5=肯定排除）。在第二轮中，专家收到了前一轮的反馈，并被要求重新评估在前一轮中未达成共识的项目。本研究中达成共识的阈值定义为专家之间达成 70%或更高的一致。
所有 15 位专家都收到了两轮问卷的完整回复。在第一轮中，18 个项目（78%）达成共识纳入。在第二轮中，有 1 个项目（4%）达成共识纳入。然而，没有任何其他剩余项目达成共识被删除，并且它们的反应保持稳定。在两轮 Delphi 调查中，获得了涵盖医学专业精神四个领域的 19 个项目列表（医患关系技巧、反思技巧、时间管理和跨专业关系技巧）。
P-MEX 中的 19 个项目已达成共识，适合评估新加坡的医学专业精神。本研究的结果可为希望评估医学学员医学专业精神的教师和机构提供指导。
