Development of attitude scale towards physiotherapy profession

The purpose of this study is to develop an attitude scale methodologically for the physiotherapy profession. The study was conducted between January 2017 and April 2018. The research population consists physiotherapists in Turkey who worked in various provinces and in various fields. The 70 physiotherapists in the sample group were asked to write an essay expressing their feelings and thoughts about the current and the future of the physiotherapy profession. By analyzing these compositions, 67 items indicating positive and negative attitudes were determined. These items were presented to 9 expert, and item numbers reduced to 44 after the necessary arrangements and the substance requirements. Qualitative evaluations were made after a preliminary application on the draft scale to a physiotherapist group of 30 people and the scale was reduced to 42 items after this application. This 42-item scale was applied to 400 physiotherapists, and after the analysis of validity and reliability of the scale, the "Attitude Scale Towards the Physiotherapy Profession" was completed as a 3-factor scale of 35 items. The internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha=α) of the whole scale is α=0.90. The α values for the sub-dimensions are 0.94, 0.82 and 0.66, respectively. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and internal consistency reliability for test-retest reliability were tested on 60 physiotherapists. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) was calculated as 0.89 for whole scale, 0.95 for the first factor, 0.89 for the second factor and 0.87 for the third factor. ICC value (95% confidence interval) was found as a ranged from 0.87 to 0.95 and it was also found reliable (p<0.05). Cronbach alfa katsayıları sırasıyla 0.936, 0.917, 0.912, 0.904'tır. Pearson Moments Product Correlation Coefficient values, which is a test-retest reliability calculation method, were 0.96 for the first factor, 0.91 for the second factor, 0.90 for the third factor and 0.92 for all the factors (p<0.05). The cronbach alpha values were determined as 0.966, 0.974, 0.957, 0.977, respectively. As a result, it was determined that "Attitude Scale Towards the Physiotherapy Profession" was validated and a reliable measurement tool to determine the attitude of physiotherapists towards their profession.