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The right stuff? From April all universities must ensure they recruit nursing students who can demonstrate compassion and respect for others. Erin Dean reports
SUMMARY
At the University of Worcester, candidates for nursing courses go through an interview process designed to check that they have the right caring attributes to join the profession. Potential students have five different elements to complete, including written tests to check their reasoning abilities, Health Education England requires universities to introduce values based recruitment in the selection of applicants to nursing courses. The approach is intended to ensure that only individuals with the right values train to be nurses. Critics say there is no evidence that recent graduates’ values contribute to poor care. Author Erin Dean is a freelance journalist
how they respond to ethical scenarios and numeracy. There is also a group work exercise, an individual interview and an observed conversation with a patient. During the patient interaction, the service user will say that they are concerned, don’t know what is happening and ask for help. Senior lecturer and admissions tutor for pre-registration nursing Helen Jones says: ‘We want applicants to be able to communicate and show empathy. Can they go in, sit down and have a chat with a service user? At the end of the activity they are given a chance to reflect on their performance
and talk about the aspects they found challenging.’ Initial feedback on the interviews has been positive, and lecturers have reported that this year’s cohort seem more engaged and proactive in their learning, Ms Jones says. The approach at Worcester is known as values based recruitment (VBR). Under new rules from Health Education England (HEE), every university must implement VBR by April this year. According to the framework published by HEE, all potential nursing students must have face-to-face interviews so that their values can be
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University of Birmingham: a video lesson in values During interviews for nursing courses at the University of Birmingham, potential recruits are shown film clips of patients or carers talking about their experiences of being ill. They are then asked questions about the clips so that staff can assess their values, personal qualities and professionalism based on their responses. The short films were shown to applicants for 115 places on adult, mental health and child nursing courses that started last September. Interviewers said that the initiative helped them to identify the students who can demonstrate insight and problem-solving skills, and that applicants who had seen the video acquired a better understanding of the care environment. Alison Smith, nursing admissions tutor and lecturer in adult nursing, says that showing potential recruits short films is more straightforward than trying to ensure there is a service user at each of the 400 or so interviews they carry out. ‘Every applicant views the video differently,’ she says. ‘Very good applicants say insightful things that we had not thought of ourselves.’ assessed. The framework, which should also be applied by NHS employers when recruiting staff, sets out rules for assessing whether applicants share the values of the NHS Constitution. These values include respect and dignity, compassion, and a commitment to quality and safety.
Compassion
The VBR approach follows in the wake of inquiries into poor care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which found some staff lacked compassion when caring for patients. HEE says the framework will ensure that the recruitment of students is standardised, and assure patients that NHS staff have the academic abilities and appropriate values and behaviours to care for them. The new guidance says universities and employers should use individual interviews with questions planned in advance. Personal statements, CVs, group interviews and
Values of the NHS Constitution Working together for patients Respect and dignity Compassion Commitment to quality of care Improving lives Everyone counts
unstructured interviews are not effective ways to test potential recruits’ values, according to the guidance. Situational judgement tests, which ask applicants what they would do in a particular nursing-based scenario, are recommended for screening interviewees. HEE chief operating officer Nicki Latham says: ‘The national VBR framework will, for the first time, ensure that the workforce is aligned with the values of the NHS Constitution. Various inquiries and media reports have shown that values are as important as skills when it comes to caring for patients.’ NHS Employers says that it is working with about 100 organisations that already undertake VBR. ‘Some of the benefits that early adopters have found are reduced sickness absence and staff turnover, and increased staff satisfaction,’ says VBR programme manager Lydia Larcum. The RCN and education leaders say that attempts to tackle attitude problems among nurses should not focus only on new graduates. They point out that students on placements need to have the right experiences to develop a caring attitude. RCN assistant head of nursing for education, learning and development Stephanie
Aiken says that VBR has the potential to reduce nursing courses’ high attrition rates and improve patient care. She believes that the VBR approach will evolve as more evidence becomes available. ‘It is about developing the right values across the workforce, not only among pre-registration students,’ she says.
Culture change
The Council of Deans of Health (CODH) has said that most universities already ask applicants about their values during recruitment and has argued for a greater emphasis on changing the culture of NHS organisations. According to the HEE’s own survey, 96 per cent of pre-registration nursing courses use values in their recruitment of potential students, and in the vast majority of cases candidates are invited to a face-to-face selection process. However, the survey also revealed that group activities or interviews are a common part of the process, even though the evidence suggests that they are ineffective ways of selecting people. Jessica Corner, dean of health sciences at University of Southampton and chair of the CODH, is sceptical about the emphasis on nursing students’ values. ‘I don’t think there is any evidence that recent graduates’ values are a cause for concern or that graduates in nursing were the source of problems at Mid Staffs,’ she says. ‘This is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.’ The real problem, she suggests, lies in ‘systemic issues around culture of care in organisations that don’t assist students and staff to sustain better care’ NS The framework can be read at tinyurl.com/kaovwe7
NURSING :: voluses 29 no 19 :: permission. 2015 21 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 27, 2015. For personal usejanuary only. No7other without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
The right stuff? From April all universities must ensure they recruit nursing students who can demonstrate compassion and respect for others. Erin Dean reports
SUMMARY
At the University of Worcester, candidates for nursing courses go through an interview process designed to check that they have the right caring attributes to join the profession. Potential students have five different elements to complete, including written tests to check their reasoning abilities, Health Education England requires universities to introduce values based recruitment in the selection of applicants to nursing courses. The approach is intended to ensure that only individuals with the right values train to be nurses. Critics say there is no evidence that recent graduates’ values contribute to poor care. Author Erin Dean is a freelance journalist
how they respond to ethical scenarios and numeracy. There is also a group work exercise, an individual interview and an observed conversation with a patient. During the patient interaction, the service user will say that they are concerned, don’t know what is happening and ask for help. Senior lecturer and admissions tutor for pre-registration nursing Helen Jones says: ‘We want applicants to be able to communicate and show empathy. Can they go in, sit down and have a chat with a service user? At the end of the activity they are given a chance to reflect on their performance
and talk about the aspects they found challenging.’ Initial feedback on the interviews has been positive, and lecturers have reported that this year’s cohort seem more engaged and proactive in their learning, Ms Jones says. The approach at Worcester is known as values based recruitment (VBR). Under new rules from Health Education England (HEE), every university must implement VBR by April this year. According to the framework published by HEE, all potential nursing students must have face-to-face interviews so that their values can be
20 january 7 :: vol 29RCNi.com no 19 :: 2015 STANDARD Downloaded from by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 27, 2015. For personal use only. NoNURSING other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
University of Birmingham: a video lesson in values During interviews for nursing courses at the University of Birmingham, potential recruits are shown film clips of patients or carers talking about their experiences of being ill. They are then asked questions about the clips so that staff can assess their values, personal qualities and professionalism based on their responses. The short films were shown to applicants for 115 places on adult, mental health and child nursing courses that started last September. Interviewers said that the initiative helped them to identify the students who can demonstrate insight and problem-solving skills, and that applicants who had seen the video acquired a better understanding of the care environment. Alison Smith, nursing admissions tutor and lecturer in adult nursing, says that showing potential recruits short films is more straightforward than trying to ensure there is a service user at each of the 400 or so interviews they carry out. ‘Every applicant views the video differently,’ she says. ‘Very good applicants say insightful things that we had not thought of ourselves.’ assessed. The framework, which should also be applied by NHS employers when recruiting staff, sets out rules for assessing whether applicants share the values of the NHS Constitution. These values include respect and dignity, compassion, and a commitment to quality and safety.
Compassion
The VBR approach follows in the wake of inquiries into poor care at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which found some staff lacked compassion when caring for patients. HEE says the framework will ensure that the recruitment of students is standardised, and assure patients that NHS staff have the academic abilities and appropriate values and behaviours to care for them. The new guidance says universities and employers should use individual interviews with questions planned in advance. Personal statements, CVs, group interviews and
Values of the NHS Constitution Working together for patients Respect and dignity Compassion Commitment to quality of care Improving lives Everyone counts
unstructured interviews are not effective ways to test potential recruits’ values, according to the guidance. Situational judgement tests, which ask applicants what they would do in a particular nursing-based scenario, are recommended for screening interviewees. HEE chief operating officer Nicki Latham says: ‘The national VBR framework will, for the first time, ensure that the workforce is aligned with the values of the NHS Constitution. Various inquiries and media reports have shown that values are as important as skills when it comes to caring for patients.’ NHS Employers says that it is working with about 100 organisations that already undertake VBR. ‘Some of the benefits that early adopters have found are reduced sickness absence and staff turnover, and increased staff satisfaction,’ says VBR programme manager Lydia Larcum. The RCN and education leaders say that attempts to tackle attitude problems among nurses should not focus only on new graduates. They point out that students on placements need to have the right experiences to develop a caring attitude. RCN assistant head of nursing for education, learning and development Stephanie
Aiken says that VBR has the potential to reduce nursing courses’ high attrition rates and improve patient care. She believes that the VBR approach will evolve as more evidence becomes available. ‘It is about developing the right values across the workforce, not only among pre-registration students,’ she says.
Culture change
The Council of Deans of Health (CODH) has said that most universities already ask applicants about their values during recruitment and has argued for a greater emphasis on changing the culture of NHS organisations. According to the HEE’s own survey, 96 per cent of pre-registration nursing courses use values in their recruitment of potential students, and in the vast majority of cases candidates are invited to a face-to-face selection process. However, the survey also revealed that group activities or interviews are a common part of the process, even though the evidence suggests that they are ineffective ways of selecting people. Jessica Corner, dean of health sciences at University of Southampton and chair of the CODH, is sceptical about the emphasis on nursing students’ values. ‘I don’t think there is any evidence that recent graduates’ values are a cause for concern or that graduates in nursing were the source of problems at Mid Staffs,’ she says. ‘This is a bit of a knee-jerk reaction.’ The real problem, she suggests, lies in ‘systemic issues around culture of care in organisations that don’t assist students and staff to sustain better care’ NS The framework can be read at tinyurl.com/kaovwe7
NURSING :: voluses 29 no 19 :: permission. 2015 21 DownloadedSTANDARD from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Nov 27, 2015. For personal usejanuary only. No7other without Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
