Purpose
The purpose of this project is to validate a survey instrument designed to evaluate medical and dental students’ experience of learning and attainment of graduate learning outcomes related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health.
Methods
A test-retest methodology was used with year 4 dental students asked to complete coded test and retest questionnaires 2 weeks apart.
Results
Results indicate that the survey is likely to be sensitive enough to pick up a range of student responses and offer valuable insight into the impact of curricula change. The survey appears to have high content and construct validity, as determined through pilot examination of each survey item. The scale is internally consistent with a Cronbach’s alpha of 0.75. Results indicate the instrument has mixed test- retest reliability with subsets of items being consistent over time and others not consistent over time.
Discussion
The revised validated tool will be utilized to evaluate dental student perceptions of their knowledge, attitudes and skills in the area of Aboriginal health; as a result of this study the tool will be one of the methods applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the Aboriginal health curricula in not only the Bachelor of Dental Science course but all undergraduate health profession courses offered in the Faculty. It may also have broadened applicability for other faculties of health sciences.
