Hoitotyön koulutuksen opiskelijavalinnat. Seurantatutkimus kahden valintakoemenetelmän yhteydestä opiskelijoiden osaamiseen ja opiskelumotivaatioon

Hoitotyön koulutukseen pyritään valitsemaan alalle soveltuvia, motivoituneita sekä teoreettisissa ja kliinisissä opinnoissa menestyviä opiskelijoita. Tämän seurantatutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli vertailla soveltuvuuskokeella ja kirjallisella kokeella valittujen hoitotyön opiskelijoiden osaamista ja opiskelumotivaatiota. Tutkimuksen tavoitteena oli tehdä tutkimustulosten perusteella hoitotyön koulutuksen opiskelijavalintoihin liittyviä kehittämisehdotuksia. Tutkimuksen kohderyhmänä olivat yhteen ammattikorkeakouluun syksyn 2002 ja syksyn 2004 välisenä aikana hoitotyön koulutukseen kahdella eri valintakoemenetelmällä valitut hoitotyön opiskelijat (N=626) (sairaanhoitotyö, terveydenhoitotyö, kätilötyö). Opiskelijaryhmistä muodostettiin kaksi kohorttia valintakoemenetelmän perusteella: soveltuvuuskoe (VAL1, N=368) ja kirjallinen koe (VAL2, N=258). Seurantatutkimuksen aineisto kerättiin opiskelijoiden opintorekisteristä sekä kahdella strukturoidulla mittarilla, joilla kartoitettiin hoitotyön opiskelijoiden itsearvioitua hoitotyön osaamista (OSAA-mittari) ja opiskelumotivaatiota (MOTI-mittari). Seurantatutkimuksen aineistonkeruu ajoittui opiskelijoiden kolmannelle lukukaudella (1. mittaus, 2004‒2006, VAL1 n=234, VAL2 n=126) ja valmistumisvaiheeseen (2. mittaus, 2006‒2009, VAL1 n=149, VAL2 n=108). Ensimmäisen mittauksen vastausprosentti oli 75,0 % ja toisen mittauksen 92,4 %. Aineistojen analysoinnissa käytettiin pitkittäistutkimukseen soveltuvia monimuuttujamenetelmiä. Kahdella valintakoemenetelmällä valikoitui pienistä eroista huolimatta osaamiseltaan ja opiskelumotivaatioltaan hyvin samanlaisia opiskelijoita. Soveltuvuuskokeella valitut opiskelijat kokivat ryhmän kannustavuuden vahvemmaksi valmistumisvaiheessa kuin kirjallisella kokeella valitut. Kirjallisella kokeella valittujen opiskelijoiden kolmannen lukukauden arvosanoihin perustuva osaaminen oli parempaa kuin soveltuvuuskokeella valittujen opiskelijoiden. Suuntautumisvaihtoehto, hoitoalan työkokemus, peruskoulutus ja hakusija olivat merkittävimmin yhteydessä opiskelijoiden osaamiseen ja opiskelumotivaatioon. Valintakoemenetelmä selitti eniten opiskelijoiden osaamisessa ja opiskelumotivaatiossa ilmenneitä eroja, joskin selitysosuudet jäivät alhaisiksi. Kehittämisehdotukset kohdistuvat valintakoemenetelmien kehittämiseen ja säännölliseen arviointiin sekä alalle motivoituneisuuden määrittelyyn ja mittaamisen kehittämiseen. Jatkotutkimusaiheina ehdotetaan eri valintakoemenetelmien testaamista ja tutkimuksessa käytettyjen mittareiden edelleen kehittämistä.Student selection in nursing education - A follow-up study of two selection methods and their relations to the knowledge, skills and study motivation of nursing students Nursing schools aim to select students that are suitable for the nursing profession, motivated, successful in theoretical studies and in clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to compare two student selection methods (namely; a psychological test and a written exam) and their relations to student success and study motivation in pre-registration degree nursing programmes (nursing, public health nursing, midwifery). The study subjects were nursing students who were admitted to a university of applied sciences in Southern Finland between autumn 2002–autumn 2004 (N=626). The subjects were divided into two cohorts based on their entry exam: a psychological test (cohort I) and a written exam (cohort II). Data collection included the use of student records and two structured questionnaires that measured the level of knowledge, skills and study motivation of the nursing students. The first point of data collection took place in their second year of studies (i.e. third semester, cohort I n=234, cohort II n=126) and the second point of data collection on their graduation (cohort I n=149, cohort II n=108). The response rates were 75% and 92.4% respectively. Data analysis was undertaken by using multivariate statistical analysis suitable for longitudinal research. Based on the results, there were very little differences in the knowledge, skills and study motivation of the nursing students between the two cohorts. The nursing students in cohort I perceived their study motivation to be stronger on their graduation than cohort II students. However, the nursing students in cohort II were more successful in theoretical studies than the cohort I students. Nursing programme, previous health-related work experience, previous education and current degree programme as the first choice of study were most significantly related to the knowledge, skills and study motivation of the nursing students. The student selection method most often explained the established differences between the cohorts regarding the knowledge, skills and motivation of the nursing students. Future research and development should focus on continuous evaluation and development of different types of selection methods as well as defining and measuring nursing students’ motivation for profession. Further research should also focus on developing the instruments used in this study.Siirretty Doriast

The assessment of emotional intelligence in social care and healthcare student selection: a qualitative descriptive study

Background: Effective student selection methods are needed to identify applicants who are expected to complete their studies and succeed professionally. The assessment of emotional intelligence has recently been identified as an important element of student selection for nursing studies. Purpose: This small-scale study, conducted in Finland, sought to capture the content of emotional intelligence that is considered relevant to social care and healthcare student selection from the perspectives of social care and healthcare educators and professionals. Methods: Five semi-structured focus group interviews (n = 30) were conducted with the educators and professionals. The data were analysed qualitatively using both deductive and inductive content analyses. Findings: The analysis of the data identified participants' perspectives on: perception of emotions, understanding emotions, accepting emotions, emotional management, emotional expression, utilising emotions and emotional awareness in social contexts. The participating educators and professionals indicated that applicants should demonstrate basic abilities across all these aspects of emotional intelligence in order to cope with the demands of social care and healthcare studies. Conclusions: Findings support the notion of the comprehensive assessment of emotional intelligence in student selection contexts. By ascertaining whether students have adequate basic emotional intelligence abilities, the risk of emotional exhaustion during clinical practice could be reduced; higher education institutions may better be able to select applicants who are likely to complete their studies and who are willing and able to work as social care and healthcare professionals.</p

Advanced mathematical skills and relating factors of engineering applicants: a cross-sectional study

Higher education institutions assess applicants with entrance examinations as a way to identify and rank those applicants with adequate ability to proceed in their studies. Engineering students form a significant group of higher education students, both in Europe and Finland. Finnish universities of applied sciences (UASs) developed and harmonised their student selection in the Development Project in 2017–2020. In the Development Project, a new national digital universities of applied sciences entrance examination (UAS Exam) was developed. In the current study, a cross-sectional design was used to assess advanced mathematical skills and related factors of the bachelor-level engineering applicants performing the newly developed UAS Exam. The advanced mathematical skills exam section contains mathematics and physics problems. The data were collected via the digital exam system. Altogether, 1205 engineering applicants consented to the study and performed the exam section. The data were statistically analysed. The applicants’ mean scores were 4.8 (SD 5.2, median 3.9, range -4.9–20 pts) out of 20 maximum points. Over 20% of the applicants failed. Some of the background variables explain the applicants’ exam results, indicating that older applicants scored better than younger ones, males better than females, and high school graduates and applicants with previous higher education degrees better than those with vocational diplomas. The results indicate that engineering applicants’ advanced mathematical skills were rather poor, indicating that it may be possible that engineering applicants lack the basic skills in mathematics and physics, but this may vary between applicants

The assessment of learning skills in nursing student selection: A scoping review

Higher education student selection has significant societal, institutional and individual impacts. Thousands of applicants apply only for nursing, one of the major higher education disciplines. As the nursing profession is characterised by cognitive requirements, higher education institutions assess the learning skills of nursing applicants. However, there has been no comprehensive analysis of learning skills assessment for nursing student selection. The purpose of this scoping review was to describe the assessment of learning skills in undergraduate nursing student selection. Five databases were systematically searched, and 24 studies published between 2006 and 2016 were included. Learning skills were most commonly assessed using standardised tests in the areas of language and communication, reasoning, mathematics and natural sciences. Overall scores of onsite selection methods were found to best predict future academic performance. The results indicate that higher education institutions may benefit from comprehensive assessment of learning skills in their selection processes. This assessment should focus on a wider range of cognitive aptitudes, including reasoning skills. This review focussed on nursing education, but the results may benefit other higher education disciplines due to the generic nature of learning skills and similar cognitive requirements of higher education studies. The results support the development of more comprehensive and valid methods for assessing learning skills

Identifying reasoning skills for the selection of undergraduate nursing students: a focus group study

Background: Reasoning is a cognitive skill crucial to making solid decisions. The assessment of reasoning skills in nursing student selection is studied scarcely. Aim: To identify which reasoning skills should be assessed when selecting undergraduate nursing applicants. Design: A qualitative descriptive design. Methods: Four focus group interviews (n = 25) were undertaken with nursing students (n = 16) and experts (n = 9). The Clinical Reasoning Model was used as a deductive framework for the main categories. Subcategories were formed inductively. Results: All eight steps of the clinical reasoning process were deductively identified including 15 subcategories and representing reasoning skills in the selection phase: Consider the situation, Collect cues and information, Process information, Identify the problem, Establish goals, Take action, Evaluate outcomes and Reflect on the process of action and new learning. The beginning of the clinical reasoning process was emphasised most. Conclusion: The assessment of applicants' reasoning skills should focus on the information processing skills. Impact statement: This study identifies reasoning skills which should be considered in the assessment of nursing applicants.</p

Development and psychometric evaluation of the Emotional Intelligence Test (EMI-T) for social care and healthcare student selection

Aim: To develop an emotional intelligence (EI) test and evaluate its psychometrics for social and healthcare student selection. Design: A cross-sectional methodological design. Methods: The test was developed based on a systematic review and focus group interviews. Content validity was evaluated with expert panels, and preliminary psychometrics with two pilot studies. Descriptive statistics, correlations and item response theory were used. Data Sources: Search was conducted in six databases 2018. Focus group interviews were conducted with educators and professionals in 2019. Expert panels with doctoral students, researchers and educators were conducted in 2020. Pilot tests with students were conducted 2020–2021. The developed test was administered to 4808 applicants 2021. Results: The test included four subscales. Correlations support the test's theoretical structure. The items were mainly easy. Conclusion: The test assesses EI objectively and comprehensively. The item-level distractor analysis can be used for further test development. Impacts: Social care and healthcare students engage in clinical practice early in their studies, and these environments can be emotionally challenging. Assessing EI in student selection with adequate test can help the institutions of higher education to select the students with required abilities to succeed in the studies. The assessment of EI during student selection also provides information higher education institutions could use to develop and provide support interventions. The results may also encourage practice placements to include EI elements as learning objective. The results of this study and especially the use of IRT and detailed distractor analysis to evaluate the psychometric properties of EMI-T can benefit researchers and educators that develop or evaluate objective assessment tools with multiple choice questions. Implications for the profession and/or patient care: Emotional intelligence is important for students to enable professional interaction.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Emotional intelligence of nursing applicants and factors related to it: A cross-sectional study

Background: Emotions influence patient care decisions and professional relationships. Emotional intelligence has been proven to predict nursing students' success in clinical practice and academic performance. Scarce amount of studies have assessed the emotional intelligence in the nursing student selection context.Objectives: To assess the emotional intelligence of applicants to undergraduate (bachelor level) nursing education and the factors related to it.Design: Cross-sectional quantitative study.Settings: The data collection took place in four Universities of Applied Sciences in October 2016.Participants: Participants were nursing applicants (N = 529) who took part in the entrance exams of the four Universities. Overall, 430 applicants (response rate 81%, 75 males) gave permission to access their results for the study's purposes.Methods: The Rankein Scale measure of emotional intelligence was used. All of the nursing applicants undertook the same electronic entrance exam in supervised computer classrooms. Statistical analysis included the use of two independent samples tests to compare differences in emotional intelligence scores and ANCOVA models to investigate whether background variables explained the observed differences.Results: In this study, nursing applicants' level of emotional intelligence was found to be average (on a scale of below average, average, above average). However, total scores ranged between 102 and 160 (of 160). Approximately 4% of the applicants scored below the minimum score (Conclusions: Nursing applicants enter their studies with differing EI skills. This finding may have a major impact on how nursing students experience emotions during their studies. More research is needed to establish the use of EI in student selection context.</h3

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

Nursing programs aim to select students who will succeed in theoretical studies and in clinical practice, and who are suitable for the profession. Recent literature has suggested an assessment of cognitive and non-cognitive skills in nursing student selection. The aim of this study is to compare the predictive value of two on-site selection methods used in nursing student selection, namely, psychological aptitude tests and literature-based exams. A cohort study was conducted. Students admitted to four undergraduate Bachelor of Science nursing programs at one Finnish nursing school between 2002 and 2004 (N = 626) were allocated into two cohorts based on the on-site selection method. Follow-up data was collected at two measurement points (May 2004–May 2009). The multimethod data collection included the use of admission archives (entrance exam scores), study records (study success) and a structured self-report questionnaire (knowledge and skills). Statistical data analysis was undertaken. According to the results, the two on-site selection methods produced very similar results regarding their predictive value. Both of the on-siteselection methods predicted knowledge and skills, and study success of nursing students to some extent, but only explained a small proportion of variance. To conclude, neither of the two on-site selection methods should be used alone when predicting knowledge and skills or study success of nursing students. Further longitudinal research is needed to investigate the predictive value of various on-site selection methods.</p

Development and psychometric testing of Reasoning Skills test for nursing student selection: An item response theory approach

Aims To develop and psychometrically test the Reasoning Skills (ReSki) test assessing undergraduate nursing applicants' reasoning skills for student selection purposes.Design A methodological cross-sectional design was applied for the psychometric testing.Methods The ReSki test was developed as part of a wider electronic entrance examination. The ReSki test included a case followed by three question sections assessing nursing applicants' reasoning skills according to the reasoning process. Item response theory was used for psychometric testing to assess item discrimination, difficulty and pseudoguessing parameters. The ReSki test was taken by 1056 nursing applicants in six Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences (28 May 2019).Results In the development process, the expert evaluations indicated acceptable content validity. In the psychometric testing, the test reliability was supported by item variance, the theoretical structure was supported by the correlation coefficients and the applicant mean performance supported an acceptable overall test difficulty. The item response theory indicated variance between the items' difficulty and discrimination ranges. However, most of the wrong items failed at being functional distractors.Conclusion The ReSki test is a new and valid objective assessment of undergraduate nursing applicants' reasoning skills. The item response theory provided item-level information that can be used for further development of the test, especially related to the revisions needed for the distractor items to achieve the desired level of difficulty.Impact What problem did the study address? The assessment of nursing applicants' reasoning skills is suggested, but there is a lack of admission tools. What were the main findings? The results provided support for the reliability and validity of the ReSki test. Item response theory indicated the need for further item-level improvement. Where and on whom will the research have an impact? The results may benefit higher education institutions and researchers when developing a test and/or student selection processes.</div

Nursing applicants' reasoning skills and factors related to them: A cross-sectional study

The assessment of reasoning skills is recommended in undergraduate nursing student selection. Reasoning skills are crucial for sound decision-making, improving patient safety and are necessary from the very beginning of studies. Nursing applicants' reasoning skills based on the reasoning process have not been previously measured.To assess undergraduate nursing applicants' reasoning skills and factors related to them.A cross-sectional study.Undergraduate nursing applicants (n = 1056, response rate 55.4%), who consented to the study and performed a joint electronic entrance examination to six Finnish Universities of Applied Sciences in spring 2019, participated in the study.The Reasoning Skills (ReSki) test, based on the steps of the reasoning process, was used, comprising three question sections (collecting information, processing information, and identifying the problem and establishing goals). Background variables were collected through a questionnaire and the Positive System Usability Scale (P-SUS). The data were analysed with descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients and analysis of covariance with Tukey's test in post-hoc multiple group comparisons.Applicants' total reasoning skills mean scores were above the centre of the range of possible scores (2.72/4.5, SD = 0.80). The applicants scored higher in collecting and processing information than in identifying the problem and establishing goals. Standard deviations demonstrated variance between the applicants' ability. Age, gender, and previous education were statistically significantly related to applicants' reasoning skills. Previous work experience was statistically significantly related to success only in the step of identifying the problem and establishing goals.Nursing applicants' reasoning skills vary in the student selection phase. Applicants are less able to identify the problem and establish goals than to collect and process information. Vocational education does not necessarily develop adequate reasoning skills and thus prepare students for higher education studies. The results have implications for educational institutions and further research.</div