Professionalism assessment of students in clinical education through Situational Judgment Test (SJT).

Background: The study aims to assess the situational judgment capability of students in various professions, including medicine, surgical nursing, anesthesia nursing, and emergency medical technology, using a validated and adapted Situational Judgment Test (SJT).
Methods: The cross-sectional study was conducted at Qom University of Medical Sciences in 2023-2024. The study consisted of two steps: (1) adaptation and validity assessment of the SJT in various health professions, and (2) evaluation of students' situational judgment capability using the adapted SJT. Participants included 207 students from surgical nursing, anesthesia nursing, medicine, and emergency medical technology departments, selected through stratified random sampling. The SJT included 10 constructed-response scenarios developed by Alkhuzaee and colleagues in 2022. The validation and adaptation process utilized consensus methods, and the SJT was modified to a selected response format based on a knowledge-based approach. Scores ranged from 0 to 30. Cohen's method and norm-referencing standard deviation were used to calculate a cut-off score. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, mean, standard deviation) and inferential statistics (independent t-test, ANOVA, and ANCOVA).
Results: The face and content validity of the adapted SJT with a selected-response format was confirmed by expert agreement. The reliability of the SJT was approved, with a Cronbach's Alpha of 0.81. The mean score of students' situational judgment in professionalism was 11.90 (SD 4.54). Students' professions significantly impacted their situational judgment scores (F (3.201) = 3.67, p = 0.01, Partial Eta Squared = 0.052).
Conclusion: The adaption and validation of SJT with a selected response format were confirmed by experts who evaluated the situational judgment capabilities of students in different clinical professions. The reliability of the SJT was acceptable-Cohen's method as a standard-setting approach assisted in identifying students needing support and training. The moderate level of situational judgment capacity confirmed the development of the educational program for the improvement of non-cognitive and non-technical skills such as judgment and decision-making in the field of professionalism.
Competing Interests: Declarations Ethics approval and consent to participate This study was reviewed by the ethics committee of Shahid Sadoughi University of Medical Sciences and approved. (ID: IR.SSU.REC.1402.063). All participants were provided with information on the study and gave consent. The informed written consent forms were obtained from all participants. The work was conducted following the Declaration of Helsinki. Consent for publication ‘Not applicable’. Competing interests The authors declare no competing interests.
(© 2024. The Author(s).)