Student nurse selection and predictability of academic success: The Multiple Mini Interview project

Abstract

Background: With recent reports of public enquiries into failure to care, universities are

The predictive value of two on-site selection methods of undergraduate nursing students: A cohort study

“…It would have been interesting to assess the predictive validity of the different parts of the psychological aptitude test, such as personality testing (Wartegg I & II, Sentence Completion Test, SELF-test) and learning abilities, but unfortunately, we were only able to access the overall scores of the psychological aptitude test. According to the previous related literature, a combination of both cognitive [7,9] and non-cognitive [3,7,24] approaches may be useful in future nursing student selection. However, further identification of factors and methods to assess cognitive and non-cognitive skills of nursing students is required.…”

“…The on-site nursing student selection methods reported within the last 20 years include the use of selection interviews, [12,19] Multiple Mini Interviews (MMIs), [7,20] admission essays, [21] nationwide entry exams, [9,10] standardised tests, [8,11,22] and emotional intelligence tests. [3,23,24] Individual and group interviews are widely used, for example, in the United Kingdom, because of the requirement from the Nursing and the Midwifery Council for face-to-face contact with nursing applicants.…”

“…[12] MMIs have been used as the on-site selection method in which both cognitive and non-cognitive attributes are most often assessed in nursing student selection. [7,20] The assessment of non-cognitive attributes has included attributes such as empathy, ethical insights, initiative, teamwork, [7] integrity, interpersonal skills and compassion. [20] In a study by Gale et al, [7] MMIs, in conjunction with numeracy and literacy scores, seemed to significantly predict academic success (assessment marks for modules in years 1, 2 and 3).…”

“…Literacy marks only weakly predicted academic success. [7] Admission essays have been used to support admission decisions in nursing education. Sadler et al, [21] used admission essays to find out what the candidates knew of the nursing profession and why they were interested in nursing.…”

“…[1] Furthermore, on-site selection methods most often include the assessment of learning/cognitive skills and non-cognitive skills. [6,7] Assessment of learning/cognitive skills include, for example, testing of literacy, numeracy and problem-solving skills. [8][9][10][11][12] Recent literature also demonstrates the desirability to assess non-cognitive skills (also referred to as person specification, non-cognitive qualities or personal attributes) in the nursing student selection.…”