The Ibn-e-Sina University Mirpurkhas Scale of Affective Domain (ISUMSAD) is a newly developed instrument designed to measure the affective domain within health professions education and patient care. A pilot study was conducted to create a questionnaire with an optimal number of items, examining the measurement properties, underlying components, and latent variable structure of ISUMSAD. This initiative aimed to evaluate the feasibility and efficiency of a larger research project. The items encompass all five levels of the affective domain (Receiving, Responding, Valuing, Organizing, and Characterizing).

Fifty students from the Muhammad Institute of Physiotherapy & Rehabilitation Sciences (MIPRS), a constituent college of Ibn-e-Sina University Mirpurkhas (ISUM), completed ten initial scales comprising 217 affective domain items. These scales were selected by a five-member committee of medical education experts. We used low Corrected Item-Total Correlation, high Cronbach's Alpha if Item Deleted, low factor loadings and finally low communalities to identify items for removal, until the items were gradually reduced to 12, forming the finalized ISUMSAD scale. The same 50 students then rated these 12 items on a 7-point Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 7 = strongly agree), yielding total scores ranging from 12 to 84 per student.

The sample’s mean ISUMSAD score was 60.86/84 (SD = 12.7). Item-total correlations were positive, with Cronbach’s α = 0.92 and KMO = 0.855. Principal Component Analysis revealed two factors. Factor 1 was named “Empathy & Communication” and Factor 2 was named “Skills & Respect”.