Developing and piloting the multiple mini-interview in pre-registration student midwife selection in a UK setting

Abstract

Background: Published research has shown the multiple mini interview (MMI) to be a reliable assessment instrument in medical and nursing student selection internationally. Objectives: To develop, pilot and examine the reliability of MMIs in pre-registration student midwife selection in one Higher Education Institution a UK setting. Design and setting: BSc (Hons) Midwifery Studies students at a Higher Education Institution in the UK volunteered to participate in 'mock' MMI circuits during the first week of their programme. DeVellis's framework for questionnaire development underpinned the generation of interview scenarios. Participants' responses to scenario questions were rated on a 7 point scale. Internal consistency was calculated for each station. Results: An eight station model was piloted. Communication skills were assessed at each station as a generic attribute. Station specific attributes assessed included compassion and empathy, respect for difference and diversity, honesty and integrity, intellectual curiosity and reflective nature, advocacy, respect for privacy and dignity, team working and initiative, the role of the midwife and motivation to become a midwife. Cronbach's alpha scores for each station ranged from 0.91 -0.97. Conclusion:The systematic development of the MMI model and scenarios resulted in 'excellent' reliability across all stations. These findings endorse the MMI technique as a reliable alternative to the personal interview in informing final decisions in pre-registration student midwife selection.

Measuring Compassion in Healthcare: A Comprehensive and Critical Review

“…A recent systematic review of compassion in healthcare [5] identified compassion as a patient right [18], central to codes of ethics across healthcare professions [19][20][21], a practice competency that should be evaluated in selecting medical and nursing student admissions, [22,23], a standard of care that healthcare providers must be trained in and systems must measure and report [11,17,24] and a dimension of quality care that should be assessed on an ongoing basis [17,25]. Despite these efforts, there is persistent evidence that a lack of compassion is a key contributor to failures within healthcare systems [11,17,21,25,26] and that receiving compassionate healthcare remains an important but unmet patient need [8,10,11,14,17].…”

Identifying applicants suitable to a career in nursing: a value‐based approach to undergraduate selection

“…At the University of Surrey, Callwood and her colleagues, presented the case for using MMIs in the recruitment of nursing and midwifery students (Callwood et al 2012) before following up with piloting this method by carrying out 'mock' MMIs with existing midwifery students. This pilot addressed a requirement of their University's Admissions Board for the adoption of this method as a new recruitment procedure (Callwood et al 2014). Despite certain limitations of this pilot, such as the use of a selfselected sample of students who were already admitted to the course, the MMI recruitment process was described as 'uneventful', attracted positive feedback from both assessors and students and was officially adopted by that institution for the recruitment of midwifery students.…”

“…Following successful pilots and evaluations of face validity the MMI has been adopted in at least two Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) in the UK for undergraduate nursing programmes (Callwood et al 2012, Perkins et al 2013, Callwood et al 2014. HEIs are ideally placed to work alongside clinical colleagues to develop stations that will suitably test candidates' attributes for nursing.…”

“…This pilot addressed a requirement of their University's Admissions Board for the adoption of this method as a new recruitment procedure (Callwood et al . ). Despite certain limitations of this pilot, such as the use of a self‐selected sample of students who were already admitted to the course, the MMI recruitment process was described as ‘uneventful’, attracted positive feedback from both assessors and students and was officially adopted by that institution for the recruitment of midwifery students.…”

“…, Callwood et al . ). HEIs are ideally placed to work alongside clinical colleagues to develop stations that will suitably test candidates’ attributes for nursing.…”