Do results of the recruitment of candidates for a bachelor’s degree course in nursing correctly predict the level of social skills of a graduate? Preliminary study

Introduction
For several years we have seen growing interest of the role social skills of nurses in efficient and safe patient care.

Aim of the research
To evaluate to what extent the results of the recruitment of candidates for a bachelor’s degree course in nursing correlate with a social skills profile evaluated at the end of the course.

Material and methods
A total of 113 graduates from the Medical University of Warsaw were involved in the study. The analysis concerned data on the admission procedure, namely the matura exam (secondary school exit exam) results in Polish, foreign language, and an additional subject. A standardised PROKOS questionnaire that permits the measurement of psychometrics in five specific scopes was used to assess the social skills profile of the graduates. Non-parametric Spearman’s correlation (rs) was used in the study, and calculations were performed using Statistica 12.5 software.

Results
Exam results in Polish were positively correlated with the level of assertive (rs = 0.23) and community-focused (rs = 0.21) skills. Moreover, the level of social skills depended significantly on the matura exam results in an additional subject (rs = 0.21). A correlation between age at admission and the scope of cooperative skills (rs = 0.17) was also observed. However, neither of the domains of the profile was related significantly with ranking scores for a foreign language.

Conclusions
Admission criteria used in the selection procedure for nursing insufficiently predicted the level of future social skills of graduates. It is recommended to introduce an assessment of non-cognitive skills at the stage of recruiting candidates to increase the validity of the admission procedure.