gms | German Medical Science

Question: Since the introduction of student selection procedures at Austrian medical universities it had been demanded not to solely focus on basic knowledge in natural sciences but also to take psychosocial aspects into account when testing interested applicants for the studies of human medicine or dentistry. Due to this request the Medical University of Graz developed a Situational Judgement Test (SJT) with emphasis on relevant medical social interactions and introduced it to the admission test whose prognostic validity already has been shown [1], [2]. Situational Judgement Tests have been well known procedures in personnel selection for decades and are adaptable to the selection of students as well [3], [4]. They typically consist of items comprising a short description of a controversial situation, a so called critical incident, and response statements. The best response has to be selected by the candidate.

Methods: At the Medical University of Graz students‘ narrations of critical incidents had been collected during the year 2010 and instructors‘ description of critical incidents during 2011. These reports were used as basis for the development of items for the SJT which was done by an interprofessional group of medical teachers and other professionals. In 2010 twenty items with five alternative responses each were implemented into the selection procedure. 1350 applicants (729 female, 621 male) answered to these items. All items underwent postest analyses. To measure their psychometric quality item analyses were performed. Additionally all applicants evaluated the selection procedure at the Medical University of Graz so that acceptance and benefit of the SJT could be assessed.

Result: Post test analyses showed satisfactory test characteristics with item difficulties 0.55<=P<=0.99 and item selectivity 0.13<=rit<=0.39. Applicants‘ evaluation of the selection procedure at the Medical University of Graz indicate that the majority approved of the introductioin of the SJT into the test and considered this part as most important for their training as a physician/dentist and for their future professional life although they said that the SJT had been the easiest part of the admission test.

Conclusion: Therefor the SJT will once again be included into this year’s selection procedure which is going to take place in July. The quantity of items will be increased as well as their influence on the total score of the test augmented. By Octobe,r two years of experience with the integration of a SJT into a student selection procedure can be reported and two years‘ results of posttest analyses can be shown.