An interpretative phenomenological analysis of the student nurses’ perceptions on value-based recruitment in the context of their personal constructs of caring and professional values

Summary The National Health Service (NHS) has been the subject of several reports and continuing debate over its apparent failure to provide dignified and compassionate patient care. As a strategy to address these apparent failings and ensure a future caring nursing workforce, Francis (2013, p.105) recommended that the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) test applicants to undergraduate nursing programmes for their care aptitudes and professional values through aptitude testing. As a direct result of Francis (2013) Health Education England (HEE) introduced a value-based recruitment framework (VBRF) (HEE 2016a) which seeks to recruit nurse students on the basis of their individual values and behaviours which align with those of the National Health Service (NHS) Constitution (HEE 2021). It is also evident that the Francis report (2013) has been the stimulus for many universities within the United Kingdom (UK) to adopt value-based recruitment (VBR) principles in their nursing and allied health practitioner recruitment practices, however the values recruitment criteria outside of England are unclear. Thus, whilst the appropriateness of VBR seems creditable, there is little evidence to suggest as to how successful VBR will translate into recruitment practices, or what the outcomes would be. Therefore, this study sought to build a bridge between the nurse candidate meaning of caring and professional values, and the representation of these values through VBR practices. To do this, ten newly recruited undergraduate student nurses undertook aptitude testing and interviews in a university setting. An idiographic appraisal of aptitude testing data as a measurement of caring and professional values, as well as interpretive phenomenological analysis (IPA) as an autobiographical account, were utilised in combination to explore the students’ meanings of caring and professional values, that is, how these values were mediated through the language of aptitude testing and how the students compared their experiences of aptitude testing and multiple-mini interviews (MMIs). A social constructionist lens was employed as a framework to critique students’ personal nursing values, the significance of these as an expression of their identity within their world of the nurse and how their values guide their beliefs and behaviour through VBR practices of aptitude testing and MMIs. The findings revealed the students’ constructed and presented their caring and professional values in line with the nursing norms evident in value frameworks they were exposed to during recruitment. Social cognition, professional identity, gender and pedagogy also influenced students meaning of caring and professional values and their responses to the values statement when undergoing aptitude testing. Significant conflict and dissonance in values centred on the students perceived realities of care and professional values in practice iii when compared with their aspirational values. All of which influenced ratings to constructs that measured their personal nursing values when compared to those of the ‘model’ nurse i.e., good nursing values within the test. When the students considered their recruitment experience, the observation of an assessor during MMI, and their absence during aptitude testing, were powerful influences on how the students presented their values. The students also reported language used within the test constructs were significant in how they interpreted value statements. Whereas their reported test results, were influential in how they viewed their values and perceived their suitability to be a nurse