The development and psychometric properties of a measure to assess the written submission of an admissions application.
Jill Stier, Jill Cameron, Behdin Nowrouzi-Kia and 3 others
PMID 40336655WHAT IT FOUND
A 25-item written-submission score for occupational therapy admissions was consistent as a total score and took about 12 minutes to rate.
Individual subscales were less consistent, and total scores did not show a clear link to pre-admission grade point average.
Key findings
01The total MOTWSM score had Cronbach’s alpha values of 0.76 in phase 2 and 0.86 in phase 3.
02Internal consistency was low for the personal statement question one, resume, and both reference letter subscales in phase 2.
03Total MOTWSM scores differed between admitted applicants and both waitlisted and not admitted applicants, but not between waitlisted and not admitted applicants.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for OTs
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What it does not show
The measure was developed and tested in one Canadian Master of Science in Occupational Therapy program, so it may not apply unchanged to other programs or countries. Only two raters were used for phase 3 reliability, which may not represent all admissions reviewers. Several subscales had low internal consistency, so individual subscale scores are less dependable than the total score. The correlation with pre-GPA was not statistically significant, so the measure did not show a link to this academic predictor. The measure did not separate waitlisted applicants from not admitted applicants on total score. The study did not follow admitted students into practice, so it does not show the measure predicts clinical competence or patient outcomes. The sample was retrospective and targeted, and mean inter-item correlations were not analysed.
Declared interests
The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest and received no financial support for the research, authorship, or publication.
The easy way to misread this
Do not read this as proof that the MOTWSM identifies applicants who will become effective occupational therapists. The study rated past admissions packages from one Canadian program and did not follow graduates into clinical practice.