Utility of Noncognitive Admission Variables in the Prediction of Academic Success
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.59311/wtjm.v1i3.20Keywords:
admission, attrition, physician assistant, PANCE, West Texas, healthcare experienceAbstract
Background: Graduate healthcare education programs commonly rely on cognitive measures such as grade point average for admission to their programs. Noncognitive measures are also collected at the time of application, with less information known about their utility in prediction of academic outcomes. This analysis observed the following noncognitive admission domains and their relationship with PA student academic success: employment hours, shadowing experience hours, research hours, hours spent in extracurricular activities, healthcare related activity hours, leadership experience, patient care experience hours, teaching hours, and volunteerism hours.
Objective: This archival analysis aims to determine if noncognitive admission variables are predictive of Physician Assistant National Certifying Examination (PANCE) failure or academic attrition at a West Texas Physician Assistant (PA) Program.
Methods: Institutional Review Board exemption was obtained; then a series of univariate logistic regression models were constructed to predict using applicant self-reported cumulative experience hours. Five cohorts (n=235) were evaluated by noncognitive variables using R statistical software (version 4.1.2).
Results: Patient care experience hours showed a positive association with PANCE failure, while healthcare and teaching experience had positive trends with attrition. High GPA was protective against attrition when controlled for employment, research, and shadowing experiences, and also when controlled for leadership and patient care experience. High GPA was not a protective factor for PANCE failures.
Conclusion: Contrary to our hypotheses, increased self-reported experiences did not show a protective effect against PANCE failure or attrition but were instead detrimental.
