A study to determine the validity of a self-assessment instrument of professionalism in pharmacy

This study sought to confirm the factor structure of APIPHANI-R, the revised version of APIPHANI, and investigated the validity of the revised tool in assessing the self-reported professionalism of pharmacists and pharmacy students. The researcher used APIPHANI-R to collect quantitative data from four groups of respondents affiliated with the St. Louis College of Pharmacy: faculty in the pharmacy practice division, alumni, and students in the last two years of their studies. Archival data for the student population was provided by the college and new data was collected via survey through a Survey Monkey URL link sent via email to the faculty and alumni groups. Scores were averaged for each respondent to determine a score on each factor and an overall composite score on the instrument. The average scores were analyzed using inferential statistics including analysis of variance (ANVOA), as well as data reduction methods (including principal components analysis, structural equation modeling and parallel analysis). These methods were employed to assess validity and to confirm the factor structure of APIPHANI-R. This study found there was no significant difference in scores between groups and that the factor structure of the instrument was most probably different than theorized. Further research with a revised instrument and larger sample size could prove useful in using APIPHANI --R to assess professionalism.