A quality improvement project: Defining and operationalizing a holistic admission selection policy

Area of Science:

• Nursing Education
• Higher Education Admissions
• Quality Improvement Science

Background:

• Faculty nationwide face challenges defining holistic admission practices in nursing programs.
• Current understanding of policy development, operationalization, and application in admissions is limited.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe the quality improvement process for developing a holistic admission selection policy in a nursing college.
• To detail the adaptation and implementation of the Experience-Attributes-Metrics Model for prelicensure programs.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement framework was utilized.
• The Experience-Attributes-Metrics Model was modified and adopted.
• Selection criteria were defined and operationalized for admissions.

Main Results:

• The quality improvement process for policy development spanned approximately two years.
• A new holistic admission policy with a tiering system was successfully created.
• The new policy is currently being applied to admission candidates.

Conclusions:

• A structured quality improvement process can effectively develop and implement holistic admission policies in nursing education.
• The adapted Experience-Attributes-Metrics Model provides a viable framework for operationalizing holistic admissions.
• The established policy and tiering system are ready for application to current applicant pools.