Development and Validation of a Novel Instrument to Measure the Community Well-Being of Residency Programs

Abstract

Purpose To develop and validate the Residency Community Well-Being (RCWB) instrument, a novel instrument to measure the subjective community well-being of an individual residency program, and to explore differences in RCWB scores between demographic groups. Method An initial questionnaire to measure a residency program’s community well-being was developed after literature review. Items were pilot tested, and the questionnaire was reviewed by experts in the fields of residency education, survey design, and sociology. The questionnaire was administered electronically between March and July 2021 to U.S. residents in 18 specialties recruited through convenience and snowball sampling using social media, a listserv, and personal emails to residency program leaders. Three previously validated instruments were administered as well to examine criterion validity: the Professional Fulfillment Index, the Brief Inventory of Thriving, and a single-item burnout measure. Data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, and exploratory factor analysis was performed using principal axis factoring with direct oblimin rotation to reduce the items and identify subscales. Results Of the 366 participants who opened and started the survey, 219 completed it (completion rate: 59.8%). Most respondents were women (133, 60.7%), 26–30 years old (132, 60.3%), and White (149, 68.0%). Three subscales emerged with 18 items: program leadership, structures, and practices (PLSP); resident interpersonal relationships (RIR); and resident mistreatment (RM). The Cronbach’s alphas were 0.96 for PLSP, 0.92 for RIR, 0.82 for RM, and 0.95 for the overall RCWB. RCWB score positively correlated with professional fulfillment (r = .52, P < .001) and thriving (r = .45, P < .001) and inversely correlated with burnout (r = −.39, P < .001). Conclusions The RCWB instrument demonstrates strong internal consistency and content and criterion validity that shows that a residency program’s subjective community well-being is primarily composed of program leadership quality, supportive interpersonal relationships, and the absence of mistreatment.