A Journey through Inculcating Preparation for Handling Medical Emergencies amongst Dental Personnel: The Validation of Medical Emergencies in Dental Practice Questionnaire (MEDPQ)

摘要

The objective of this study is to construct and validate a questionnaire regarding the assessment of perceived confidence, attitude and knowledge of dental undergraduates in handling medical emergencies in dental practice. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 82 dentists and clinical staff practicing in dental setting either in university campus-based or hospital-based around Malaysia by convenience sampling. The questionnaire was developed and undergone content validation by the experts from 7 Emergency Physicians, Faculty of Medicine, UiTM and 6 Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons, Faculty of Dentistry, UiTM and face validation by 10 graduating dental students. Questionnaire consists of 6 parts and there were 38 cognitive questions in the form of Likert scale of 1 to 5. Participation in this research required implied consent. Data was analyzed using SPSS version 23.0. Construct Validation was determined by exploratory factor analysis (EFA) while reliability was determined by Cronbach's alpha. There are 3 questions to be validated. The Question 9 which consists of 11 items yielded a double-factor structure that demonstrated a high factor loading with a range of 0.703 to 0.983 and a good internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.918). The other two questions, Question 10 and 20, consists of single-factor structure with factor loading ranging from 0.784 to 0.934 and 0.805 to 0.892 respectively. In conclusion, Medical Emergencies in Dental Practice Questionnaire (MEDPQ) is valid and reliable to measure awareness and perceived confidence of dental personnel in handling medical emergencies.