Student Perceptions of Collaboration Skills in an Interprofessional Context: Development and Initial Validation of the Self-Assessed Collaboration Skills Instrument

Abstract

An integral component of interprofessional education (IPE) is the development of a collaboration-ready health-care workforce. While collaboration is a fundamental element of IPE, there is no existing measure of collaboration skills that is not context specific. This article describes the development and initial validation of the Self-Assessed Collaboration Skills (SACS) measure. Items were initially drawn from the Collaboration Skills Assessment Tool rubric, an educational assessment tool. The SACS measure was piloted in a sample of students in an introductory IPE course. Following scale revision, the SACS was piloted a second time in a sample of students in an IPE health systems course and then validated in a sample of students in an introductory IPE course. Exploratory factor analysis was used to assess scale factor structure in Pilots 1 and 2 and confirmatory factor analysis to confirm factor structure in the validation sample. Convergent and discriminant validity were also assessed. The final SACS measure is an 11-item scale consisting of three dimensions of collaboration: information sharing, learning, and team support. The SACS measure demonstrates high internal consistency and both convergent and discriminant validity as a measure of collaboration. The SACS can be implemented in any setting for assessing collaboration in clinical and nonclinical contexts.