The relationship between admission criteria and practice preferences

Area of Science:

• Occupational Therapy
• Mental Health Workforce
• Higher Education Admissions

Background:

• A significant shortage of occupational therapists in mental health practice areas is a growing concern.
• This decline necessitates an examination of factors influencing students' practice area choices.
• Understanding the impact of admission criteria on practice preferences is crucial for addressing this personnel gap.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between occupational therapy program admission criteria and students' preferred practice areas at the time of admission.
• To determine if current admission processes exhibit bias against applicants favoring mental health practice.
• To explore how modifications to admission criteria might affect the number of students entering mental health practice.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of admission data from one occupational therapy program.
• Comparison of practice preferences between accepted, alternate, and rejected applicant groups.
• Simulation of admission outcomes using grade point average (GPA) alone versus a combined GPA and interview score.

Main Results:

• No evidence of bias against mental health practice preferences within the current admission criteria was found.
• Recalculating admissions based solely on GPA indicated a potential increase in students preferring mental health practice.
• The study highlights a discrepancy between current selection methods and the goal of bolstering the mental health OT workforce.

Conclusions:

• Current occupational therapy admission criteria do not appear to systematically exclude students interested in mental health.
• Rethinking admission procedures, particularly the weighting of interviews versus GPA, could positively influence the number of occupational therapists choosing mental health.
• Further research is recommended to validate these findings and explore optimal admission strategies for diverse practice areas.