Selection process for admission to an academic nursing programme - A meta-synthesis

Student nurse selection has been a topic of debate for years. Poor nursing care has been attributed to uncaring attitudes, lack of motivation and poor training and mentoring. Student nurse selection requirements and the steps involved in the process have been a revolving debate. Internationally, the recruitment and selection process are being refined to align with recommendations from the Francis Inquiry to include a values assessment.

To select, review and interpret evidence-based studies on student nurse selection; and develop and provide recommendations for nurse educators when selecting first-year student nurses as a holistic, integrative process fitting with caring and providing quality care.

Qualitative meta-synthesis.

Electronic databases were used during data collection: Ebscohost, ScienceDirect, SAGE, Cinahl and Sabinet (SAePublications). Qualitative articles published in English or Afrikaans reporting on student selection processes and experiences were included in the data collection process.

Qualitative articles were systematically identified using the STARLITE principles. The articles were critically appraised for quality by employing the CASP method.

Fourteen articles were included. Thirteen of the articles were published in English. One PhD thesis was included, a seminal work conducted on student nurse selection in South Africa. Data analysis revealed three main themes: a reliance on the interview, alternative selection methods, and attributes as criteria for nursing selection. Within these themes, many different methods of student selection emerged. The benefits and challenges of these methods were identified, and a holistic admission process was ultimately most successful in selecting the correct student nurse.

The findings indicate there are many different student nurse selection processes. A holistic admission process is needed to select the best student nurse that displays caring attributes and provides quality nursing care.