Development and evaluation of an instrument to measure community pharmacists’ self-efficacy beliefs about communicating with Spanish-speaking patients

BackgroundHispanics are the largest growing population in the United States, and their use of prescription medications can be influenced by the education and counseling they receive from pharmacists. However, little is known about pharmacists’ communication with patients who speak Spanish or factors that can influence such communication.ObjectivesThe objective of the study was to develop and validate an instrument to measure pharmacists’ self-efficacy in communicating with Spanish-speaking patients.MethodsAn initial pool of 15 items developed from previous research and suggestions from communication experts and practicing pharmacists was subjected to cognitive interviewing. Nine retained items were administered to 1022 licensed pharmacists by mail survey. Summary statistics and exploratory factor analysis (EFA) were conducted. Retained factors were determined by the examination of eigenvalues and scree test results. Cronbach’s alpha coefficients were calculated to assess internal consistency.ResultsA total of 540 community pharmacists completed the survey. Item means ranged from 2.93 ± 1.47 to 1.58 ± 0.88 based on a 5-point scale (1: not at all confident to 5: extremely confident). EFA resulted in a 2-factor solution, accounting for 71% of the variance. The 2 factors consisted of health and drug information (alpha = 0.92) and opening the encounter (alpha = 0.75). The alpha for the overall scale was 0.88.ConclusionsThe results provide evidence to support the reliability and validity of an instrument to measure pharmacists’ self-efficacy beliefs about communicating with Spanish-speaking patients in community practice. Practitioners and researchers may use this instrument to inform pharmacy education, pharmacy practice improvement, and research efforts around communicating with Spanish-speaking clients.