Evidence-informed dental student recruitment techniques

The aim of the study described was to measure the performance of potential dental students in an evidence-based, objective, structured admission interview, and to compare that performance to student achievement in aptitude tests, tests of scientific knowledge, and tests of ability to apply knowledge to dentistry. A list of desirable attributes of dental professionals was drawn from the literature, omitting those which were considered to be learnt within the dental school curriculum. Possession of these attributes were then measured by objectively scoring responses to questions framed around a challenging clinical scenario. The interview scores were then correlated against student performance in an MCQ science for dentistry examination, an applied dental knowledge test, and the Graduate Australian Medical student aptitude test. The literature review revealed that sensitivity to others, professionalism, and ethical behaviour were deemed almost as important as academic and technical competency. Correlations of scores from an interview which sought to measure the attributes described in the literature with scores in scientific knowledge tests, aptitude tests and applied dental knowledge tests were low, and did not reach statistical significance. The results suggest that an interview process has been devised which measures the importance of characteristics not readily captured in more traditional selection strategies. Because the literature demonstrates that these characteristics are important to the public and the profession, this objective interview is a useful selection tool.