Evaluation of recruitment and selection for specialty training in public health: interim results of a prospective cohort study to measure the predictive validity of the selection process

Abstract

The current UK national recruitment and selection process for public health specialty training has good predictive validity. The individual components of the process are testing different skills and abilities and together they are providing additive value.

Situational judgement test validity for selection: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

“…A total of 10 were cross-sectional studies, [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35]55 where the outcome was measured at the same time or in the same selection cycle as taking the SJT. A total of 17 were cohort studies 17,[36][37][38][39][40][41][42][43][44][45][46][47][48][49][50][51] that had a follow-up period before the outcome of interest was measured. Three studies employed a mixture of F I G U R E 1 PRISMA (preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses) flowchart for the systematic review Abbreviations: CINAHL, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature; EMBASE, Excerpta Medica Database; ERIC, Educational Resources Information Center; EThos, Electronic Theses Online Service; UCAT, University Clinical Aptitude Test cross-sectional and more distal outcomes.…”

“…[52][53][54] The length of followup across the cohort studies varied from 1 to 9 years after taking the SJT. Full details of the included studies are listed in Table S1. A total of 11 studies 17,28,29,35,[40][41][42][43]47,49,50 looked at undergraduate selection for medical school entry, five studies 31,36,37,45,51 at entry to Foundation Year training programmes (the first 2 years of post-qualification training in the United Kingdom [UK]) and 14 studies 27,30,[32][33][34]38,39,44,46,48,[52][53][54][55] at entry to specialty training. The youngest participant mean age was 17.9 years and the oldest was 34.0 years.…”

“…Most studies that gave details on sample demographics reported having a majority of female participants. The studies were all conducted in high-income countries, with 19 [27][28][29][30][31][32][33]36,37,[44][45][46][47][48][49][51][52][53]55 assessing UK populations, six 17,[40][41][42][43]50 from mainland Europe, three 35,38,39 from North America, and two 34,54 from Australia.…”

“…A total of 24 studies [27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][36][37][38][39][40][44][45][46][47][48][49][51][52][53][54][55] evaluated text-based SJTs, with four [41][42][43]50 video-based and two 17,35 that included both delivery formats. All but one 35 SJT used a selected response question (SRQ) format.…”

“…One study 55 used a mixture of formats (rating scale and choosing several appropriate behaviours). One study, 35 Two studies 39,44 did not give details of the response formats. A total of 20 studies 17,[28][29][30][31][32][33][34]36,37,[40][41][42][43]46,47,50,[52][53][54] included some measure of reliability and internal consistency for the SJT used, which ranged from 0.29 to 0.91.…”