Purpose: The aim of this study is to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Turkish version of the
Health Professionals Communication Skills Scale (HP-CSS).
Methods: The HP-CSS was translated into Turkish following an international instrument translation
guideline. A convenience sample of 394 health professionals participated in this study. Internal consistency
reliability, content validity, test-retest reliability, and convergent validity were assessed. A
confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to evaluate the construct validity.
Results: The Turkish version of HP-CSS comprised four factors (empathy, informative communication,
respect, and social skill). The HP-CSS-TR demonstrated adequate internal consistency (Cronbach's a
values .72-.79). In terms of the content validity, the scale-level content validity index (CVI) was .94, and
the item-level CVI ranged from .83 to 1.00. The HP-CSS-TR showed good test-retest reliability (intraclass
correlation coefficients were above .82). No statistically significant difference was found between the
applications. There was a good agreement between the HP-CSS-TR and communication skills inventory
(CSI) scales. Confirmatory factor analysis results (c2/df, GFI, AGFI, IFI, TLI, CFI, RMSEA, and SRMR) showed
a good fit for the original four-factor model.
Conclusion: Results showed that the Turkish version of the HP-CSS is a valid and reliable tool for the
assessment of communication skills of health professionals in Turkey. The use of the HP-CSS-TR measure
in clinical settings could be useful in enhancing the quality of care by identifying inadequacies and
improving communication skills.