Recruitment, selection and retention of nursing and midwifery students in Scottish Universities

Abstract

Recruitment selection and retention initiatives were rarely evaluated, and if so, adopted a relatively superficial approach. Evidence from existing studies to support practices was mostly weakly supportive or absent. The study highlights the need for a coordinated approach, supporting the development of a robust evidence base through the evaluation of local initiatives, and evaluation of new strategies. Evaluation strategies must take account of the local context to facilitate transferability of findings across different settings.

The relationship between emotional intelligence, previous caring experience and successful completion of a pre‐registration nursing/midwifery degree

“…Attrition from undergraduate programmes contributes to the shortage of qualified staff globally (Kantek, 2010;Oulton, 2006). Student selection processes vary, but generally aim to identify individuals who are most likely to successfully complete their nurse training programme; reducing attrition and producing competent nurses (Rodgers, Stenhouse, McCreadie, & Small, 2013).…”

“I know exactly what I'm going into”: recommendations for pre‐nursing experience from an evaluation of a pre‐nursing scholarship in rural Scotland

“…This is the first pre-nursing scholarship to be developed and evaluated in the UK and we identify ten recom-mendations and propose a model to inform the design and delivery of similar future programmes. The study is timely given the prevailing policy around pre-nursing experience in the UK, the relative paucity of robust evidence around effective approaches to enhance nurse recruitment, selection and retention, particularly in Scotland (Rodgers et al 2013) and the enduring international challenge of rural nurse recruitment. The PNS provided an effective model by aiding pupils' personal assessment of their suitability and desire for nursing.…”

A scoping review of admission criteria and selection methods in nursing education

“…This review indicates that assessment of non-cognitive abilities is generally done through interview (traditional, multiple mini interview), personal statements and references (8,33,38,46,48). Interviews are the most common method for assessing non-cognitive abilities such as communication and teamwork skills (33,38,46,48,53,59), despite evidence that traditional interviews lack predictive validity and are not a powerful tool for selecting nursing students (8,46,80). Interviews are strongly in uenced by interviewers(81) and hence are highly associated with bias in the selection process (38).…”

“…Personal statements are another method used to assess non-cognitive characteristics including motivation and self-evaluation (8,46). There is little research evidence to con rm the predictive validity of personal statements, and most research evidence indicates that this method lacks validity and reliability as a selection tool (8,46,47,53). On the other hand, the content of personal statements may lead to unfair judgment in the selection of applicants (84).…”

“…2. Academic achievement records: In most studies, academic records have been used as the most common criterion for selecting a student for nursing education, typically based on the high school grade point average (GPA) (8,13,14,33,36,38,46,47,50,53,59,62,69). Studies have reported prior academic achievement of applicants in general, but it was not possible to further analyze the speci c cognitive-academic abilities acquired from academic records of applicants.…”