Validation of the Romanian Communication Skills Ability Scale - CSAS-RO - A Tool for Medical Schools

Andreea Steriu; Eugenia Claudia Bratu; Nicoleta Valentina Cioran; Lăcrămioara Aurelia Brînduşe

doi:10.1177/23821205221096375

Validation of the Romanian Communication Skills Ability Scale - CSAS-RO - A Tool for Medical Schools

J Med Educ Curric Dev. 2022 May 10:9:23821205221096375. doi: 10.1177/23821205221096375. eCollection 2022 Jan-Dec.

Authors

Andreea Steriu¹, Eugenia Claudia Bratu¹, Nicoleta Valentina Cioran¹, Lăcrămioara Aurelia Brînduşe¹

Affiliation

¹ UMF Carol Davila, Romania.

Abstract

In medicine ability to communicate requires training and continuous development.

Aim: To validate the Communication Skills Ability Scale in Romanian. Study design: cross-sectional observational interrupted large case series. Sample and setting: all year 5 medical undergraduate students enrolled at UMF Carol Davila, Bucharest (UMFCD). A two field tests study: 1) 2nd semester of the 2017/2018 academic year (n = 361); 2) 2018/2019 academic year (n = 703).

Methodology: The Romanian translation of CSAS® was used.

Results: The CSAS-RO confirms the 2-Factor scale; internal consistency: Cronbach-α coefficient was 0.894 for the PAS (0.870 CSAS^®) and 0.754 for the NAS (0.805 CSAS^®) All item-total and item-rest correlations satisfied the criterion of more than 0.30, ranging from 0.32 to 0.71 with the exception of items 17 (field test 1) and item 11 (field test 2).

Conclusion: CSAS-RO is valid to use with medical students. The reuse of the scale with a longitudinal study design will allow to assess any new educational needs for communication ability in medical students plus add the remaining property to test (the test-retest reliability).

Keywords: MeSH terms: communication methods; education; medical; medicine; total; undergraduate.