Holistic Admission Review 3. In recent years, administrators, researchers, and faculty have raised concerns that using only metrics to determine students’ readiness for success in a nursing or health professions education program may not give the admission committee sufficient data to predict who will be successful. The question arising from these concerns is, “Do the quantitative metrics adequately represent all of the skills and attitudes that make a nurse or other health professional successful?” Certainly, academic skills are important, but are there other experiences and attitudes that contribute to a compassionate, safe practitioner? As a result of these concerns, nursing and health professions programs began to consider the implementation of a holistic admission review . Artenian, N. et. al. (2017) defines a holistic admission review as “a flexible, individualized way of assessing an applicant’s experiences, attributes, and academic metrics and how the individual might contribute value as a student and future health professional.” Figure 1 illustrates the way in which these characteristics work together to provide a broad picture of the potential of the prospective student Figure 1: Components of a Holistic Admission
ATTITUDES § Resilience
ACADEMIC METRICS § CGPA total/ sciences § Admission test component scores
EXPERIENCE § Health Care Work § Education
§ Integrity § Curiosity § Socio-economic status § Multilingual
HOLISTIC ADMISSION
Adapted from AACN, 2020
To accomplish the positive outcomes of holistic admission review, faculty must commit to this process, which requires significant time to evaluate each candidate. To avoid as much bias as possible in this evaluation, a holistic admission process requires care to quantify the evaluation as much as possible. Table A outlines strategies to reduce the potential reviewer bias in the various approaches to holistic assessment. Table A: Strategies to Reduce Potential Bias in Holistic Assessment
Component of Assessment
Assessment Strategy
§ Resume § Interview Questions: Rubric to evaluate responses § Applicant Essay: Rubric to evaluate essay § Letters of Reference: Rubric to evaluate content relative to criteria
Previous Experience in Healthcare
§ Official Transcripts § Applicant Essay: Rubric to evaluate content relative to criteria of essay
Education Experience
§ Interview Questions to target required soft skills. For example, “Describe a situation where effective communication resolved a potential conflict. In a similar future situation, what would you do differently?” or § “Describe a time you have been part of a team. What did you learn from this experience?”
Soft Skills
Metrics
§ Relevant quantitative data
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