Development and psychometric validation of the medical humanistic care scale

A BSTRACT Objectives: This study aimed to develop and validate the “Medical Humanistic Care Scale” (MHCS), a novel multidimensional instrument tailored to the Taiwanese healthcare education context. The scale addresses the limitations of existing tools by integrating social, institutional, and ecological dimensions essential for modern medical education. Materials and Methods: An initial item pool was established through literature review and focus group interviews. The validation process was conducted in two phases: a pilot phase ( N = 155) using exploratory factor analysis (EFA) to determine the latent structure, and a formal phase ( n = 331; including medical and nursing students and postgraduate year trainees) using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to examine construct validity, reliability, and demographic variations.