The Mental State Inferences in Healthcare Professionals Scale: A psychometric study

Abstract Background. Empathizing with patients is an essential component of effective clinical care. Yet, a debate persists regarding how healthcare professionals' emotions and performance are impacted when they engage in empathetic behaviors and attempt to discern patients' mental states during clinical interactions. To approach this issue, this study introduces an eight-item scale to evaluate healthcare professionals' perceptions of their own disposition to infer patients' mental states during clinical interactions.Method. The psychometric structure of the scale was analyzed, including an exploratory and a confirmatory factor analysis, to test reliability and validity. Additionally, an item response model was run to test how items measure the latent trait. The study collected data from a sample of 485 healthcare professionals and students.Results. Overall, the results indicate that the psychometric structure of this tool is adequate. Furthermore, the unidimensionality of the scale was confirmed, wherein the eight-items significantly contribute to predicting the latent construct.Conclusion. The MSIHPS offers the opportunity to explore the role of mentalizing in a diversity of healthcare settings. This measure can be useful to explore the relationship between healthcare professionals' disposition to infer patients' mental states and other relevant variables in clinical interactions, such as empathy and clinical performance.