It is hoped that the first round of nurse training offers will be made early next week so successful applicants should be in a position to weigh up their CAO offers versus a nursing place. There are six applicants for every nurse-training place so interest in and anxiety about the evolving central applications and screening procedures are intense.
As nurse training moves away from the old apprenticeship-type model towards a college-associated course, the applications process is being centralised. The selection system is also changing to meet the needs of the new three-year diploma. However, there have been some teething problems. This year, Price Waterhouse is project managing the central applications procedure in addition to carrying out a review of the entire procedure. For the first two years of its operation, the Nursing Applications Centre called all applicants to interview and a proportion were called to a second interview.
Assessment tests
This year, the 5,200 applicants, who are competing for almost 900 places, were called to an assessment test instead of a preliminary interview.
This test, in late June and early July, took the form of three cognitive reasoning components - mathematical, verbal and decision-making. This was supplemented by a detailed questionnaire which sought to identify "caring characteristics". If this type of selection procedure proves successful, it may well interest the members of the expert group which the Minister for Education has set up to review the points system.
After discussion with people involved in nursing selection procedures in the US, Canada, Scandinavia and Britain, Price Waterhouse psychologists identified a number of tests. These tests and the questionnaire were agreed with the Local Appointments Commission and the Department of Health. The next step was to test their suitability for Ireland. Nurse trainees in a number of nursing schools agreed to validate the tests, on condition of confidentiality. A spokesman for Price Waterhouse said the test results correlated strongly with the relative ranking of the students in their classes.
Of the 5,200 nursing applicants who sat the assessment tests this year, 1,700 were called to interview. This correlates well with the proportion eliminated on first interview in the past, according to the Nursing Applications Centre. The 15 interview boards consisted of senior nurse tutors and directors of nursing, chaired by a member of the Local Appointments Commission, which also administered the assessment tests.
Ranking of candidates
Candidates were then ranked on the basis of their performance at interview and they next have to pass through a "gateway", by fulfilling the Leaving Cert requirements. There is no points rating for their Leaving Cert results but those who achieved the minimum requirements on their first attempt at the Leaving Cert had 10 per cent added to their interview score.
Leaving Cert candidates must also fulfil two other conditions - a letter of reference from the school principal and a medical examination.
Offers time
It is hoped that first-round offers will be posted to applicants on Friday next coinciding with the CAO offers. In all, there are 40 places in mental handicap nurse training, 120 in psychiatric and 725 in general nurse training. Candidates ranked the hospitals in order of preference on their application form (there are 17 general nursing schools, six psychiatric and two mental handicap schools listed) in a manner similar to the CAO.
Once they receive an offer, applicants can accept or reject the offer outright or accept or reject it but ask to be considered for a higher preference should one become available. There is an acceptance fee of £50 which will be fully refunded after three weeks in the nursing school.
Student nurses on the college-associated courses are no longer part of the hospital workforce. They are not paid a salary but receive a non-means-tested maintenance grant from the local health board or voluntary hospital and they have full student status. On completion of the three-year diploma, graduates will have the option of continuing their studies to obtain a degree.
Selection criteria
Meanwhile, the review of the entire nursing selection process is still under way and a report is expected by mid-October. Guidance counsellors have complained about the entry requirements which require students to have three languages and a laboratory science. These are, in effect, the NUI matriculation requirements. The programme was first piloted in National University of Ireland, Galway (UCG), which, understandably, put NUI requirements in place. As the number of college-associated places grew, these requirements were extended to all colleges. This means that nursing applicants for non-NUI colleges such as DCU and UL must fulfil NUI requirements. Should diverse entrance requirements be brought in or should the requirements be relaxed and a new national standard agreed?
These and other questions must be answered by the review. Should there be a weighting for Leaving results in what is an increasingly academic programme? How useful are assessment tests as an initial weeding out procedure? Should these tests be done earlier in the year? Why not use the CAO to offer places, as many applicants will have applied both to the CAO and the Nursing Applications Centre?
Whatever about the entry requirements and admission procedures, the advent of a centralised applications process and the increasing professionalisation of nursing, with the development of college-associated courses, are very positive developments. It has been a long-drawn out teething process, with three years of change. However, if the overriding concern of "fairness, equity and equal treatment for all candidates" is finally achieved, it will have been a worthwhile process.
Why can't the CAO offers be synchronised with the Leaving Cert results?
It would put 62,000 students out of their misery as they wait six days to hear whether they have an offer. A spokesman for the CAO says it takes 2 1/2 days to pack the offers into envelopes. So, why don't they buy a machine? It would only be needed for three days in May and two days in August and, most probably, would not work if left idle for so long, was the answer. Admissions officers need time to decide on the number of offers they will make.
The spokesman also said the philosophical point had to be made that half the students who did their Leaving Cert were not applying for college places so they had their day in the sun yesterday. The college applicants would have theirs next Monday.
But the reality is that while only half the students will get college places most of them have applied through the CAO. So, almost all will be hearing from the CAO next Monday. Surely, synchronisation of the results and the offers would be more sensible.
Yesterday's Going to College supplement listed grades for alternative level maths in the Leaving Cert. The correct name for this grade is foundation level.
Additional research by Catherine Foley