Psychometric Validation of a Growth Mindset and Team Communication Tool to Measure Self-views of Growth Mindset and Team Communication Skills

Abstract Background The multidisciplinary healthcare team is a complex social network in which pharmacists balance effective team communication and interactions to improve patient outcomes. The observation that some pharmacists advance practice innovation and others experience more difficulty led to the investigation of factors related to self-view, interpersonal ability, growth mindset, communication and teamwork skills. Objective The objective of this study was to develop and conduct psychometric validation of a tool to assess self-views of growth mindset and team communication skills among student pharmacists. Methods The Mindset and Team Communication Tool was developed to assess self-views of growth mindset and team communication. The survey consisted of two parts (1) 14-item on Growth Mindset, and (2) 13-item Team Communication; using 4-point Likert scale of agreement. The survey was administered to first-year student pharmacists (P1) from 2017 to 2019. Participants completed the pre-survey at the beginning of the semester and post-survey at the end of the semester (3-months follow-up period). Psychometric validation was performed by assessing the following properties: face and content validity, internal consistency reliability, construct validity, test-retest reliability, responsiveness validity, and convergent validity. Results A total of 174 participants completed both the pre- and post-survey (response rate=92.7%). Internal consistency reliability demonstrated a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.827. Construct validity showed that all measures except 6 items loaded highly onto two components. Test-retest reliability revealed a significant positive relationship between the pre- and post-survey scores. Responsiveness validity demonstrated a significant improvement in score when an intervention was provided. Convergent validity showed no correlation between the tool and course grades. Conclusion The Mindset and Team Communication Tool demonstrated validity and reliability across a robust set of psychometric values and provides a foundation to describe pharmacists' self-views and explore associations of these views with behavior in teamwork-based environments.