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

• Universities are expected to develop more robust selection processes
• Multiple mini interviews with literacy and numeracy testing have been developed by one university
• A study was undertaken to test the new system for bias, and as a predictor of academic success
• No bias for gender, age, nationality and location of secondary education was found
• The new process was only weakly predictive of academic success

SummaryBackgroundWith recent reports of public enquiries into failure to care, universities are under pressure to ensure that candidates selected for undergraduate nursing programmes demonstrate academic potential as well as characteristics and values such as compassion, empathy and integrity. The Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) was used in one university as a way of ensuring that candidates had the appropriate numeracy and literacy skills as well as a range of communication, empathy, decision-making and problem-solving skills as well as ethical insights and integrity, initiative and team-work.ObjectivesTo ascertain whether there is evidence of bias in MMIs (gender, age, nationality and location of secondary education) and to determine the extent to which the MMI is predictive of academic success in nursing.DesignA longitudinal retrospective analysis of student demographics, MMI data and the assessment marks for years 1, 2 and 3.SettingsOne university in southwest London.ParticipantsOne cohort of students who commenced their programme in September 2011, including students in all four fields of nursing (adult, child, mental health and learning disability).MethodsInferential statistics and a Bayesian Multilevel Model.ResultsMMI in conjunction with MMI numeracy test and MMI literacy test shows little or no bias in terms of ages, gender, nationality or location of secondary school education. Although MMI in conjunction with numeracy and literacy testing is predictive of academic success, it is only weakly predictive.ConclusionsThe MMI used in conjunction with literacy and numeracy testing appears to be a successful technique for selecting candidates for nursing. However, other selection methods such as psychological profiling or testing of emotional intelligence may add to the extent to which selection methods are predictive of academic success on nursing.