Abstract
INTRODUCTION: Health care programs evaluate prospective applicants using cognitive and non-cognitive criteria. The aim of this research was to develop and evaluate the psychometric properties of a measure to evaluate the non-cognitive criteria of admissions applications. METHOD: A Masters of Occupational Therapy Written Submission Measure (MOTWSM) was developed and evaluated over 3 phases, using applicants' written statements, resumes, and reference letters. Participants included 50 students who completed an occupational therapy program for determination of internal consistency and test-retest reliability. Additionally, 195 written submissions selected from the applicants who were admitted, waitlisted, and not admitted to the program were evaluated to determine inter-rater reliability using a two-way ANOVA. Analysis of 195 submissions using a one-way ANOVA determined the measure's discriminative validity. FINDINGS: Results indicated test-retest reliability of 0.95 and internal consistency reliability of 0.76. Inter-rater reliability reported a Cronbach's alpha coefficient of 0.86 using a horizontal scoring method. Good discriminative validity was established. CONCLUSION: The MOTWSM is a reliable and valid measure that can be used to evaluate the non-cognitive criteria of admissions applications in health profession programs. Use of this measure can facilitate selection of the highest caliber of students.