Undergraduate nursing program admission criteria: A scoping review of the literature

To provide a broad overview of literature related to undergraduate nursing program admission criteria used by faculty and administrators in the United States to predict student program success.

A scoping review of literature.

Review was guided by the framework for a scoping review suggested by Arksey and O'Malley (2007).

Cinahl; ERIC; Google Scholar; ARHQ; Medline; ProQuest; Sigma Literature Search.

Thirty-five relevant articles were selected for full review, including 25 published research studies and 10 doctoral theses. Three themes emerged in the charted literature representing criteria used to predict student program success: academic program admission criteria, nonacademic program admission criteria, and admission criteria formulas or scoring systems. The traditional academic criterion of cumulative pre-nursing GPA was the criterion most commonly cited as being used to predict student success in a nursing program. No one criteria or combination of criteria emerged as most predictive of student program success.

Significant gaps in the literature exist regarding standards or benchmarks for determining program admission criteria, including nonacademic criteria such as CNA status or previous healthcare experience, that adequately predict student success in an undergraduate nursing program.