Selection of Student Nurses at Bafokeng Nursing College

Bafokeng Nursing College is a privately owned institution situated at the Impala Mines in Bophuthatswana. It selects and trains student nurses from all parts of Southern Africa in the comprehensive four-year course who at qualifying are free to work for Genntin or anywhere else in the country. The College is affiliated to Medunsa in offering the four-year comprehensive course. Selection is limited because o f limited facilities. The old selection process was evaluated in 1985 and the new selection process started functioning in 1986 when the new course was offered for the first time at the College. With the new selection process, the drop-out rate is very low, the pass rate has improved and the quality of nursing care is improving. VAbstrak Die Bafokeng Kollege van verpleging is 'n privaat instansie wat gele ëis in Bophuthatswana naby die Impals myn. Student verpleegkundiges wat vanuit die hele Suidelike Afrika gekies word, word opgelei. Na voltooing van die vierjaar omvattende kursus, kan hulle vir Genmin o f enige werkgewer in die land werk. Die kollege is aan Medunsa verbonde met betrekking tot die aanbieding van die omvattende vier jaar kursus. Weens beperke fasiliteite, word 'n beperkte getal studente gekeur. Die ou keurings proses is in 1985 geevalueer eh die huwe proses het in 1986 begin toe die nuwe kursus vir die eerste keer by die Kollege aangebied is. Met die nuwe keurings proses is die uit\>alsyfer baie laag, die slaag-syfer her verbeter en die kwaliteit van verpleegsorg word steeds beter.


BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The selection process at Bafokeng nursing College has been in existence since the training o f nurses started in the 1970s.All applicants who had a matric exemption were called for an interview.The interview w as not structured and w as co n d u cted by a selectio n com m ittee composed o f the C hief Medical Officer, Chief Nursing Services Manager, College Principal, V ic e -P r in c ip a l, a n d o n e o f th e tu to r s .Candidates w ere asked to write a psychological test that w as totally unrelated to nursing.The interview was not necessarily able to recruit students w ho have realistic expectations about nursing.Some of the students resigned quickly from nursing because o f one or more o f the following reasons:- They did not feel comfortable in dealing with people.Some did not react positively to conflict.* P oor stress toleran ce -some students who resigned w ere em otionally unstable and lack ed high to leran ce for em o tio n a lly demanding situations.Others lacked good control over their anxieties.
* Im m a tu rity -most o f the younger students w ho resigned probably lacked a sense of responsibility or were committed to their own wellbeing rather than to the patients.
T hese w ere students w ho w ere not mature enough to cope with irritations in the situation and felt overw helm ed.

INTRODUCTION
The system o f nursing education has been revolutionalised to such an extent that entry into professional n u rsin g co n stitu te s extensive preparation through a comprehensive four-year Diploma course which is offered at Nursing C olleges and U niversities.Therefore, it is important to ensure that students selected for the c o m p r e h e n s iv e f o u r -y e a r c o u r s e h a v e successful results in m atric, have realistic e x p e c t a tio n s a b o u t n u r s in g , a n d a re well-motivated to follow nursing as a career.
Candidates w ho apply for the comprehensive four-year course at the College are subjected to a selection process.In this text, the selection process at this College is explained in detail.

SELECTION METIIOD
The following steps are followed in the selection o f student nurses at the College: * The use o f the Swedish Rating Scale on matric results of all applicants with matric exemption.* The use o f application forms to find more information on the candidate.Application forms are only sent to candidates whose matric results are above the cut-off point prescribed for that particular year * W riting o f essays to evaluate language, re a lis m o f c a r e e r e x p e c t a tio n s a n d motivation.* A panel interview to further evaluate the c a n d i d a t e 's g e n e r a l i n t e ll ig e n c e , competence in English, personal cleanliness, m aturity, interpersonal relatio n s, stress tolerance and initiative.
To complete the last tw o steps o f the process, candidates are booked for two days at the College.The first day on arrival, they write the essays which are evaluated on the same day; the second day is for the panel interview.
It was not easy to structure a selection process for recruitment of black nursing students in S o u th e rn A fric a if th e w e a k n e s s e s and short-comings of the general education system for blacks are considered.Bantu education has a rip p le e ffect on the q u a lity o f n ursing education and training for Blacks and on the quality and quantity o f Black student nurses (Mashaba, 1986).
The recruitment of prospective student nurses is undermined by the fact that pupils lack carecr guidance in respect o f nursing.Many o f those who are admitted to the course, got there more by chance than by informed intelligent choice.Many more people are ignorant o f what nursing is all about and especially, as it is practised in the mines.
In the selection process, care should be taken to recruit people with love and the potential to be good nurses, and avoid 'w rong' candidates who only possess intellectual capabilities, or happen to be related to senior nursing or medical personnel.
The high cost of student training necessitates c arefu l se le c tio n o f s tu d e n ts in o rd er to minimise student dropout (Kitsa, 1990).

Use of the Swedish rating scale:
S election o f prospective student nurses at Bafokeng Nursing College is based not only on the Std 10 certificates, but also on the average symbol obtained at the Std 10 examinations, and the sym bols obtained in Biology, English, and Science subjects.Even though the failure rate at Std 10 is high, the College can afford to be selective in terms o f good sym bols because it receives over 1 500 applications per year for about 25 posts.The College does not just take what comes i ts way and the scope o f recrui tment is restricted to the most deserving candidates.The Swedish rating scale (Table 1), is used to reduce the number o f applications to managable levels.The cut-off point is35 pointsso that only ab o u t a b o u t 40 o r so c a n d id a te s can be interviewed for the posts.The cut-off point is kept high because it would only be fair to give an equal chance to the most intellectually capable candidates in the interview .The Swedish rating scale, therefore, selects the most intellectually capable candidates but not all intel lectual ly capable students have the capacity to become very good nurses, hence the essays and the panel interview.This m eans that application forms cannot be sent to a candidate w ho has obtained less than 35 in the Swedish rating.A letter is written to such a can d id a te in fo rm in g him w hy the application w as rejected and he is advised of alternatives that he may follow.Certified copies o f matric certificate, birth certificate, testim onials and two black and white passport photographs, are asked to be sent with the completed application forms for the application to be considered.

TIIE ESSAYS
The candidates w ho sent back the application form s and necessary docum ents are called for an interview on specific dates.Before the interview, they are requested to write short essays which are related to what will be asked in the interview.(Table 2)

TIIE INTERVIEW
The Selection Committee: The pose a strange environment and having to deal with seriously ill and dying patients would need a person w ho is emotionally stable, with good control over his anxieties and with a high tolerance for emotionally demanding situations.' Initiative: nursing does not need people who are pushed into it because they performed b ad ly at m a tric , a re u n a b le to go to University because of poor matric results, or are forced into it because parents insist on their child becoming a nurse.Nursing needs people who are self-motivating, self-reliant and decisive about their career choice.We do not need people w ho come to nursing as _ a last resort ie, when they had failed toobtain ■ ad m issio n in other fields o f study." Motivation: the choice of nursing as a career should be done with care and intelligence.In this regard, job expectations should be in line with the true nature o f the work.The c a n d id a te m ust sh o w ev id en c e o f his commitment to nursing as a career and his reasons for this career choice m ust be acceptable to the selection committee.
In the interview , all candidates are asked basically the same questions and an evaluation af the above-mentioned factors is made using a rating scale.The points in the rating scale are jounted and candidates with the highest points ire c o n sid e re d fo r se le c tio n .A fte r the interview, the candidates are released to go home and candidates are informed o f the results af the selection process by post probably within a week or two.

EFFECTIVENESS OF TIIE SELECTION PROCESS
A total number of 115 students were selected over five years (1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990) and only nine have resigned.That represents an overall attrition rate o f 7,8% over 5 years.
O f the nine who dropped out o f the course, four (4) resigned for personal reasons, one (1) was forced to resign for disciplinary reasons, and the other four (4) could not cope wi th the academic demands of the course.
A study was made on the rati ng forms o f al I ni ne students who dropped out of the course and it w as interesting to note that eight of them were rated poorly on stress tolerance during the interview.The student w ho was forccd to resign for disciplinary reasons w as rated positively on stress tolerance!The selection process at the College certainly provides guidelines on how future nurses can be selected from a large group o f applicants.It was a g o o d l e a r n in g e x p e r i e n c e in w h ic h im provem ents can be made to suit different health and/or educational institutions.
Since the introduction o f this selection process, the attrition rate has dropped, the pass rate improved markedly, and the quality o f nursing care has improved at hospi tals and clinics served by our students.G one are the days when candidates w ho obtained the worst results in matric were pushed into nursing and teaching.Nursing and teaching arc now competing with Universities for the candidates with the best matric passes.Aftcrall, who needs half-baked matricultants for fully-fledged professions!

*
P o o r m o tiv a tio n -th is m e a n s jo b expectations were not in line with the true n a tu re o f the w o rk .S o m e w ere not committed to nursing as a career.* P o o r in te rp e r s o n a l re la tio n s -so m e s t u d e n ts w e re n o t r e s p o n s iv e o r w armhearted as the profession demands.
interview o f prospective student nurses at th e C o lle g e is c o n d u c te d by a se le c tio n comm ittee, which is made up o f the following 5 m em bers:-s p o k e n E n g lis h a n d m a k e h im s e lf understood.Personal Cleanliness: observation is made on w h e th e r th e c a n d id a te a p p e a r s sufficiently neat and clean to meet the standards o f hygiene required in nursing. 1 Maturity: som e q u e stio n s relate to the c a n d id a te 's s e n s e o f r e s p o n s ib ility , commitment to the patient's rather than his own well-being, emotional self-control and his ability to withstand irritations in the situation that might overwhelm him.' Interpersonal relations: n u r s in g n e e d s p e o p le w h o a re s o c ia lly re s p o n s iv e , warmhearted, comfortable in dealing with people and react positively to conflict.■ Stress tolerance: the mining industry might Figure 1 Chart to show number of students completed or remaining on the course(1986)(1987)(1988)(1989)(1990)

Table 1 Swedish Rating Scale as used at Bafokeng Nursing College
Application forms are used to obtain additional information such as personal data, educational qualifications, em ploym ent record, medical and/or physical defects from the candidate.