Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Department of General Practice and Rural Health, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
BMJ Open. 2023 Jun 9;13(6):e066154. doi: 10.1136/bmjopen-2022-066154.
Responding well to clinical uncertainty is a crucial skill for any doctor. To better understand how medical students develop this skill, Social Cognitive Theory can be used to explore students' perceived capability to respond to situations of uncertainty. This study aimed to construct a self-efficacy questionnaire and use it to measure medical students' responses to clinical uncertainty.
A 29-item questionnaire was constructed. For each item, participants rated their confidence in responding to uncertain situations using a scale of 0-100. Data were analysed with descriptive and inferential statistics.
Aotearoa New Zealand.
The questionnaire was distributed to 716 of 852 medical students in second, fourth and sixth year, at the three campuses of the Otago Medical School.
The Self-Efficacy to Respond to Clinical Uncertainty (SERCU) questionnaire was completed by 495 participants (69% response rate) and found to be highly reliable (α=0.93). Exploratory factor analysis confirmed a unidimensional scale. A multiple linear regression model predicted self-efficacy scores from year of study, age, mode of entry, gender and ethnicity, F(11,470) = 4.252, p<0.001 adj. R²=0.069. Male students and those admitted to the programme 3 years postdegree or with significant allied health experience were predicted to have significantly higher self-efficacy scores. Year of study was not a significant predictor of average efficacy scores.
Our research contributes a novel, highly reliable questionnaire that uses self-efficacy to measure medical student responses to uncertainty. The questionnaire revealed that students' confidence in responding to uncertainty may be more related to their background and life experience than to progression through the curriculum. Medical educators and researchers can use the SERCU questionnaire to obtain a new perspective on how their students respond to uncertainty, inform future research and tailor teaching about uncertainty.
对临床不确定性做出良好反应是任何医生的关键技能。为了更好地了解医学生如何培养这种技能，可以使用社会认知理论来探索学生对不确定性情况的感知能力。本研究旨在构建一个自我效能感问卷，并使用该问卷衡量医学生对临床不确定性的反应。
构建了一个包含 29 个条目的问卷。对于每个条目，参与者使用 0-100 的量表评估他们对不确定情况做出反应的信心。使用描述性和推断性统计方法对数据进行分析。
新西兰奥特亚罗瓦。
奥塔哥医学院三个校区的二年级、四年级和六年级的 852 名医学生中，有 716 人收到了问卷。
495 名参与者（69%的回复率）完成了《应对临床不确定性的自我效能感（SERCU）问卷》，该问卷被发现具有高度可靠性（α=0.93）。探索性因素分析证实了一个单一维度的量表。一个多元线性回归模型从学习年限、年龄、入学模式、性别和种族预测了自我效能得分，F(11,470)=4.252，p<0.001 adj. R²=0.069。男性学生和那些在学位后 3 年入学或有显著的辅助医疗经验的学生被预测具有更高的自我效能得分。学习年限不是平均效能得分的显著预测因素。
我们的研究提供了一种新颖的、高度可靠的问卷，使用自我效能感来衡量医学生对不确定性的反应。该问卷显示，学生对不确定性做出反应的信心可能与其背景和生活经验有关，而与课程进展无关。医学教育者和研究人员可以使用 SERCU 问卷从新的角度了解学生对不确定性的反应，为未来的研究提供信息，并根据不确定性进行教学。
