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Abstract
Background: Selection tools for medicine must achieve political validity and enjoy stakeholder acceptability. This qualitative study aimed to establish the perspectives of doctors, from various clinical specialities, on HPAT-Ireland, a new selection tool for undergraduate medical students.
Methods: Fifteen doctors participated over three iterative cycles of recruitment, interviewing and analysis. Prior to interview, participants sat a practice HPAT-Ireland test. HPAT-Ireland has three sections: (1) Logical reasoning/problem solving; (2) Interpersonal understanding and (3): Non-verbal reasoning.
Summary of results: Three themes emerged: job relatedness; utility of HPAT-Ireland and diversity. Sections 1 and 2 were considered very job related however Section 3 was widely criticised for lacking clinical relevance. Doctors did not think that the test would reliably predict future performance. However, one-third felt it was acceptable as a selection tool in conjunction with academic record. Those who found it unacceptable were influenced by its perceived narrow focus, limited job relatedness, potential for socioeconomic bias, impact on gender and potential for negative influence on student diversity.
Conclusions: A selection tool that does not enjoy the confidence of the medical profession is unlikely to achieve political validity and may ultimately fail, regardless of other objective measures of its effectiveness such as predictive validity.
Acknowledgements
We sincerely thank the doctors who gave up their time to take part in this study: Dr S O Flynn for advice on study design and Dr G McGuire who commented on the final draft of this article.
Declaration of interest: F.D. is a member of the National Research Group Evaluating Entry and Selection to Medical Schools. This group comprises Deans and Heads of Medical Schools and is broadly evaluating the impact of the changes to Irish medical student selection criteria. Funding of €10 000 was granted via a competitive process for a larger Mixed Methods Programme of Research on Medical Student Selection and a further €1000 was also awarded by WestREN to conduct the initial pilot study. The authors wish to acknowledge our funders the Western Research and Education Network (WestREN), Galway (www.western.nuigalway.ie).