Developing a Tool to Assess Students' Attitudes toward Chronic Illness

The goals of many interprofessional programs involvechanging students' attitudes. Jefferson Attitudes towardChronic Illness Survey (Jefferson CIS), which has beenused to assess the attitudes of perceptions toward chronicillness care of nearly 2,000 Jefferson students since 2007,provides a case study of some of the best practices used todevelop a credible tool to evaluate attitudinal changefollowing curricula designed to improve chronic illnesscare skills. Previous work demonstrates that healthprofessionals and students often report negative biasestowards care of those with chronic illness or disability.1,2,3 Although the details are available elsewhere,4 thefollowing highlights key methods and representativefindings from the initial validation study for the Survey.