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The objective of this study was to develop and test a competency scale, which measures the competency of interprofessional collaborative practice of health professionals. A total of 32 health professionals were interviewed, and then an item pool of 255 items was created to measure the competency of interprofessional collaboration. A questionnaire study was conducted with 1552 health professionals from four different hospitals located in the Kanto region of Japan. The questionnaires were distributed and collected by gatekeepers in each section. The valid response rate was 62.6%. There were a total of 65 questionnaire items measuring the competency of interprofessional collaboration. Each item was assessed by the number of valid responses, distribution of scores, item-total correlation analysis and good-poor analysis. Construct validity was assessed using factor analysis and the relationships among the total scores of each factor with interprofessional education experience during education before and after graduating. Moreover, Cronbach's alpha coefficient was calculated to assess reliability. Finally, 30 items were excluded, and a scale for interprofessional collaborative competency comprising 35 items and 6 factors was developed. From the perspective of construct validity and internal consistency, the scale in its pilot form shows some promising aspects.

The purpose of this study was to refine the items on a scale measuring interprofessional collaborative competency that was developed by the authors in an earlier pilot study. A questionnaire-based study was conducted with a sample of 2133 health professionals using the reformulated questionnaire. Construct validity was tested by comparing the survey results with a covariance structure analysis and the domains of interprofessional collaboration competencies presented in previous studies. A second survey was conducted 2 weeks later with a sample of 571 nursing professionals, using the same survey form to test its reliability. We constructed a model comprising 29 observed variables and six latent variables (the Chiba Interprofessional Competency Scale: CICS29), and obtained the following values for the model's goodness of fit: GFI = 0.925, AGFI = 0.908, CFI = 0.950, RMSEA = 0.049. With regard to reliability, we obtained scores ranging from 0.65 to 0.77 for the intraclass correlation coefficients of the six domains. Compared with the interprofessional collaboration scales indicated in previous studies, the CICS29 was found to have subsumed the key concepts that should be configured as interprofessional collaboration competencies. The CICS29 appeared to have satisfactory levels of reliability and validity and is recommended as a scale for measuring competencies of interprofessional practice.