2
views
0
recommends
+1 Recommend
0 collections
    0
    shares
      • Record: found
      • Abstract: found
      • Article: found
      Is Open Access

      Considering vocational training as selection criterion for medical students: evidence for predictive validity

      research-article

      Read this article at

      Bookmark
          There is no author summary for this article yet. Authors can add summaries to their articles on ScienceOpen to make them more accessible to a non-specialist audience.

          Abstract

          Prior work experience in a relevant medical profession is an important admission criterion currently used at many German medical schools in addition to cognitive criteria. In other countries, work experience is often considered in later admission stages (e.g., interviews with pre-selected subgroups of applicants). However, evidence for its predictive validity for study success in addition to cognitive admission criteria is currently lacking. We therefore assessed whether completed vocational training in a relevant medical profession can predict study performance in the first two years of study in addition to cognitive admission criteria. Admission and study performance data of all currently enrolled medical students at two German medical schools (Göttingen and Heidelberg) beginning with the 2013/14 cohort were retrospectively analyzed. Cognitive admission criteria in our sample were GPA grades and a cognitive test (“Test für Medizinische Studiengänge”, TMS). We defined the study outcome parameter as the mean percentile rank over all performance data points over the first two years of study for each location, respectively. A multi-level model with varying intercepts by location, GPA, TMS, vocational training, and sex as predictors accounted for 14.5% of the variance in study outcome. A positive predictive association with study outcome was found for vocational training (ß = 0.33, p = .008) beyond GPA (ß = 0.38, p < .001) and TMS (ß = 0.26, p < .001). Our results support the use of prior vocational training as a selection criterion for medical studies potentially adding predictive validity to cognitive criteria.

          Related collections

          Most cited references22

          • Record: found
          • Abstract: not found
          • Article: not found

          Entrustability of professional activities and competency-based training.

            Bookmark
            • Record: found
            • Abstract: found
            • Article: not found

            Clinical experience, performance in final examinations, and learning style in medical students: prospective study.

            To assess whether the clinical experience of undergraduate medical students relates to their performance in final examinations and whether learning styles relate either to final examination performance or to the extent of clinical experience. Prospective, longitudinal study of two cohorts of medical students assessed by questionnaire at time of application to medical school and by questionnaire and university examination at the end of their final clinical year. Two cohorts of students who had applied to St Mary's Hospital Medical School during 1980 (n = 1478) and 1985 (n = 2399) for admission in 1981 and 1986 respectively. Students in these cohorts who entered any medical school in the United Kingdom were followed up in their final clinical year in 1986-7 and 1991-2. Student's clinical experience of a range of acute medical conditions, surgical operations, and practical procedures as assessed by questionnaire in the final year, and final examination results for the students taking their examinations at the University of London. Success in the final examination was not related to a student's clinical experiences. The amount of knowledge gained from clinical experience was, however, related to strategic and deep learning styles both in the final year and also at the time of application, five or six years earlier. Grades in A level examinations did not relate either to study habits or to clinical experience. Success in the final examination was also related to a strategic or deep learning style in the final year (although not at time of entry to medical school). The lack of correlation between examination performance and clinical experience calls into question the validity of final examinations. How much knowledge is gained from clinical experience as a student is able to be predicted from measures of study habits made at the time of application to medical school, some six years earlier, although not from results of A level examinations. Medical schools wishing to select students who will gain the most knowledge from clinical experience cannot use the results of A level examinations alone but could assess a student's learning style.
              Bookmark
              • Record: found
              • Abstract: found
              • Article: found
              Is Open Access

              The UKCAT-12 study: educational attainment, aptitude test performance, demographic and socio-economic contextual factors as predictors of first year outcome in a cross-sectional collaborative study of 12 UK medical schools

              Background Most UK medical schools use aptitude tests during student selection, but large-scale studies of predictive validity are rare. This study assesses the United Kingdom Clinical Aptitude Test (UKCAT), and its four sub-scales, along with measures of educational attainment, individual and contextual socio-economic background factors, as predictors of performance in the first year of medical school training. Methods A prospective study of 4,811 students in 12 UK medical schools taking the UKCAT from 2006 to 2008 as a part of the medical school application, for whom first year medical school examination results were available in 2008 to 2010. Results UKCAT scores and educational attainment measures (General Certificate of Education (GCE): A-levels, and so on; or Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA): Scottish Highers, and so on) were significant predictors of outcome. UKCAT predicted outcome better in female students than male students, and better in mature than non-mature students. Incremental validity of UKCAT taking educational attainment into account was significant, but small. Medical school performance was also affected by sex (male students performing less well), ethnicity (non-White students performing less well), and a contextual measure of secondary schooling, students from secondary schools with greater average attainment at A-level (irrespective of public or private sector) performing less well. Multilevel modeling showed no differences between medical schools in predictive ability of the various measures. UKCAT sub-scales predicted similarly, except that Verbal Reasoning correlated positively with performance on Theory examinations, but negatively with Skills assessments. Conclusions This collaborative study in 12 medical schools shows the power of large-scale studies of medical education for answering previously unanswerable but important questions about medical student selection, education and training. UKCAT has predictive validity as a predictor of medical school outcome, particularly in mature applicants to medical school. UKCAT offers small but significant incremental validity which is operationally valuable where medical schools are making selection decisions based on incomplete measures of educational attainment. The study confirms the validity of using all the existing measures of educational attainment in full at the time of selection decision-making. Contextual measures provide little additional predictive value, except that students from high attaining secondary schools perform less well, an effect previously shown for UK universities in general.
                Bookmark

                Author and article information

                Contributors
                Dorothee.Amelung@med.uni-heidelberg.de
                Journal
                Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract
                Adv Health Sci Educ Theory Pract
                Advances in Health Sciences Education
                Springer Netherlands (Dordrecht )
                1382-4996
                1573-1677
                6 July 2022
                6 July 2022
                2022
                : 27
                : 4
                : 933-948
                Affiliations
                [1 ]GRID grid.7700.0, ISNI 0000 0001 2190 4373, Medical Faculty, , Heidelberg University, ; Im Neuenheimer Feld 110, 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
                [2 ]GRID grid.7450.6, ISNI 0000 0001 2364 4210, Medical Faculty, , Göttingen University, ; Göttingen, Germany
                [3 ]GRID grid.10388.32, ISNI 0000 0001 2240 3300, Medical Faculty, , Bonn University, ; Bonn, Germany
                [4 ]GRID grid.7307.3, ISNI 0000 0001 2108 9006, Medical Faculty, , Augsburg University, ; Augsburg, Germany
                Author information
                http://orcid.org/0000-0001-9534-0136
                Article
                10120
                10.1007/s10459-022-10120-y
                9606097
                35794434
                0c037811-51db-44c5-bdf7-4aa556227053
                © The Author(s) 2022

                Open AccessThis article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

                History
                : 8 November 2021
                : 23 April 2022
                Funding
                Funded by: FundRef http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/501100002347, Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung;
                Award ID: 01GK1801A
                Funded by: Medizinische Fakultät Heidelberg der Universität Heidelberg (9149)
                Categories
                Article
                Custom metadata
                © Springer Nature B.V. 2022

                Education
                admission criteria,medical student selection,medical school,vocational training,professional experience,multicenter study

                Comments

                Comment on this article