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Clinical ethics
Paper
Establishing a ‘physician's spiritual well-being scale’ and testing its reliability and validity
  1. C K Fang1,
  2. P Y Li2,
  3. M L Lai3,
  4. M H Lin4,
  5. D T Bridge5,
  6. H W Chen6,7
  1. 1Department of Psychiatry, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  2. 2Department of Educational Psychology and Counselling, National Taiwan Normal University, Taipei, Taiwan
  3. 3Department of Neurology, National Cheng Kung University Hospital, Tainan, Taiwan
  4. 4Department of Family Medicine, Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  5. 5Palliative Care Service, Royal Perth Hospital and Department of Medicine, University of Western Australia, Perth, Western Australia, Australia
  6. 6Hospice and Palliative Care Center, Mackay Memorial Hospital, Taipei, Taiwan
  7. 7Department of Nursing, Mackay Medicine, Nursing, and Management College, Taipei, Taiwan
  1. Correspondence to Dr Hong-Wen Chen, Hospice and Palliative Care Center, Mackay Memorial Hospital, 92, Sec. 2, Zhongshan N. Rd., Taipei 104, Taiwan; fang0415{at}yahoo.com.tw

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to develop a Physician's Spiritual Well-Being Scale (PSpWBS). The significance of a physician's spiritual well-being was explored through in-depth interviews with and qualitative data collection from focus groups. Based on the results of qualitative analysis and related literature, the PSpWBS consisting of 25 questions was established. Reliability and validity tests were performed on 177 subjects. Four domains of the PSpWBS were devised: physician's characteristics; medical practice challenges; response to changes; and overall well-being. The explainable total variance was 65.65%. Cronbach α was 0.864 when the internal consistency of the whole scale was calculated. Factor analysis showed that the internal consistency Cronbach α value for each factor was between 0.625 and 0.794 and the split-half reliability was 0.865. The scale has satisfactory reliability and validity and could serve as the basis for assessment of the spiritual well-being of a physician.

  • Quality/value of life/personhood
  • quality of health care

http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/jme.2010.037200

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    Footnotes

    • Funding This study was funded by the Taiwan National Science Council (research budget 2516-S-195-003-MY3) and the Medical Research Department of Mackay Memorial Hospital (grants MMH-9705 and MMH-9802).

    • Competing interests None.

    • Ethics approval This study was conducted with the approval of the ethics committee of the Taiwan Association of Hospice and Palliative Medicine and the institutional review boards of the National Cheng Kung University Hospital and the Mackay Memorial Hospital.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.

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