Table 1.
Ownership Scale (16-item)
| Dimension measured | Item |
|---|---|
| Advocacy | 1. I was vocal and assertive about my patients’ best treatment/care. |
| 2. I felt comfortable telling the attending what I felt was the right thing to do for my patients, rather than just letting them decide. | |
| 3. I challenged the team as needed if I felt it was in my patients’ best interest, no matter how much push back I got. | |
| Responsibility, accountability, and follow-through | 1. I frequently deferred to other providers for many aspects of my patients’ care. (reverse*) |
| 2. I personally made sure to go back and check that all orders were actually carried out. | |
| 3. When carrying out my patient’s management plan, I took extra care to make sure that things did not fall through the cracks. | |
| 4. I felt responsible for my patients’ care, even after my shift ended. | |
| Knowledge | 1. I was the “go-to” person for knowledge about my patients. |
| Communication | 1. I made sure that the nursing staff was updated with the day’s plan. |
| 2. I felt that my sign -outs could have been more effective (reverse)† | |
| Initiative | 1. I was proactive in checking up on my patients, rather than being called with questions or concerns. |
| Continuity of care | 1. I ensured good continuity of care even when I was absent from the service. |
| Autonomy | 1. I was given the opportunity to make decisions independently about my patients’ care. |
| 2. I felt that my attending(s) micromanaged me (reverse) | |
| 3. I felt comfortable making decisions independently about my patients’ care. | |
| Perceived ownership | 1. I felt a strong sense of ownership of my patients’ care. |
The final, 16-item ownership scale distributed to medicine trainees. This scale measures ownership’s key constructs: advocacy, responsibility, accountability, follow-through, knowledge, communication, initiative, continuity of care, autonomy, and perceived ownership
*Reverse refers items that measure the reverse dimension. Responses were re-coded, such that answering “7” (strongly agree) on the original survey was re-coded to “1” (strongly disagree) in the data analysis
†This item was eventually removed from the scale because doing so led to an increase of Cronbach’s α