Holistic Admissions Review Integration in Nursing Programs

To address health inequities, the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, Institute of Medicine, and Association of American Medical Colleges recommend holistic admissions review (HAR) to increase health professional diversity.

This cross-sectional study collected admissions criteria from 1,547 nursing programs. Criteria were categorized according to the experiences, attributes, and academic metrics (EAM) model, and programs were dichotomized into those with holistic admissions criteria versus none.

Only 43% of nursing programs considered holistic admissions criteria. Regionally, rates varied from 35% in the South to 54% in the West. The rate of HAR integration exceeded 67% in only six states.

Nursing programs have not widely integrated HAR despite evidence that academic metric use alone disadvantages qualified underrepresented students. HAR implementation can be facilitated by standardizing how HAR is operationalized and applying best evidence to rubric development that appropriately weighs admissions criteria based on the EAM model, and also training reviewers for unbiased candidate evaluation. [.