CPSQ for healthcare

About CPSQ

CPSQ assesses applicants’ values and behaviours, helping you to make selection decisions for admission to healthcare courses or employment. The assessment can also help you to understand students’ or employees’ development needs.

CPSQ is used by employers, nursing schools and medical and healthcare faculties in the UK and overseas.

Key facts

Format:	Online
Duration:	Typically takes 20–40 minutes
Delivery:	At your institution or remotely
Dates:	Available on demand

Why use CPSQ?

Make values based recruitment decisions

CPSQ results are reported against seven healthcare-related competencies. These competencies are aligned with the values of the NHS Constitution (England) and can be aligned with other national healthcare values frameworks.

Select applicants fairly

CPSQ provides a transparent method of assessing your applicants. Respondents are asked the same questions, in the same way, and scoring is objective. Because the test is not timed, non-native English speakers are not disadvantaged.

Reinforce your existing selection process

Using CPSQ alongside other selection criteria gives you a broader, more holistic picture of your applicants.

Accurate results

The rating and ranking format used in CPSQ questions is almost twice as accurate as traditional, single-statement personality assessments for predicting academic or occupational performance.

Fast and convenient

The assessment is easy to administer and provides instant reports. We provide training and support to help you use the assessment, and can help you to map CPSQ reporting to your organisation’s values.

Uses of CPSQ

Screening: Screen out the least suitable applicants.
Supporting recruitment: Use as supporting evidence alongside other selection methods and assessment results, to make evidence-based selection decisions.
Inform recruitment: Use CPSQ results to focus interview questions or inform Multiple Mini Interview (MMI) content.
Identify training and development needs: Identify students who need support and target training needs at group level.

CPSQ has high internal consistency and test–retest reliability. Our early evidence indicated close alignment with test results and interviewers’ assessments of applicants. In some instances, interviewers could not quite “put their finger” on why an applicant seemed a poor fit, but when they viewed the profile they were able to agree with its rankings of the various style dimensions.

Kay Jones,
Chief Operating Officer,
School of Health Sciences, City University London

What does it assess?
Assessment format
Results
CPSQ research

What does it assess?

Applicants’ behaviours are reported against seven healthcare competency areas:

CPSQ competency areas used in reporting	Definition of CPSQ competency areas
Caring and compassion	Puts others first and responds with kindness to distress. Capable of acting with patience and respect, even with the most challenging individuals and patients.
Person-centred communication	Engages with others to develop caring relationships.
Working well with others	Co-operative and supportive of the team. Capable of working effectively with others to deliver care.
Self-management	Strives to be excellent in what they do. Backs it up with self-discipline and planning.
Safe practice	Follows guidelines, but also possesses a strong sense of social responsibility to alert others if standards are not being met.
Engagement with learning	Keen to develop understanding and learn. Enthusiastic and creative problem solver.
Coping with demands	Resilient and can manage their emotions, enabling them to consistently deliver care and work well with others.

These competency areas are based on national healthcare frameworks and aligned to the NHS values.

Assessment format

CPSQ is an online questionnaire. Questions are designed to be suitable for entry-level applicants with no previous healthcare experience.

The questionnaire is typically completed in 20–30 minutes for native English speakers and in up to 60 minutes for non-native speakers. It contains 164 short statements in sets of four. Respondents are given options to rate the statements:

CPSQ diagram 1

Respondents who give the same rating to two or more statements in a set are then asked to choose which statement is ‘More like me’ / ‘Less like me’:

CPSQ diagram 2

This ranking of statements helps respondents to reflect on their behaviour, and reduces the ability to over-exaggerate socially desirable qualities – ‘faking good’.

Results

The one-page report for each applicant features a colour-coded score band (from 1 to 5), showing their potential profile against the seven competency areas.

The colour-coded format makes it easy to scan and identify areas of concern or for follow-up.

Below is part of a sample report, showing the colour-coded profile:

Person centred communication

Working well with others

Reports can be generated for individuals or groups.

CPSQ research

We are experts in developing assessments for use in medical and healthcare settings and are the producers of the BioMedical Admissions Test (BMAT).

All our assessments are produced using research and processes conforming to international quality standards.

CPSQ was developed during a four-year trial with healthcare organisations and conforms to the established, well-researched Five-Factor Model of Personality.

The Five-Factor Model, or ‘Big Five’, is a classification system for thousands of behavioural styles. Research undertaken from the 1960s onwards, that applied advanced statistics, saw patterns in human behaviour. CPSQ uses the ‘Big Five’ personality traits and translates those to the assessment’s competency frameworks.