December 1, 2009
Reprint from CVM Today
A growing trend among Colleges of Veterinary Medicine, often driven by ongoing curricular review and accreditation efforts, is to develop outcome assessments for the quality and scope of the educational process. Both as a response to requests from numerous TVMA members and for compliance with AVMA assessment standards, the College recently developed a list of Day One Core Competencies for our graduates.
As background, it is important to note the “Day One” portion of the document title. These lists are typically developed to assess the skill sets of entry level veterinarians or new graduates. In some settings, additional lists have been developed that capture the different skill sets that would be expected at Year One after graduation. The DVM curriculum must provide adequate opportunity for success for an item to be included on the list. This means that there should be adequate opportunity in the clinic, in classes, or in laboratories for the skill to be performed during the four years of the curriculum. The number of times listed for a skill to be performed is to achieve meet competency. However, we expect students to have the opportunity to perform most of the listed skills many, many times during the four year professional program.
The TAMU DVM list was developed as a staged process. The first draft was written by the Professional Programs Office utilizing ideas from two veterinary schools, the AAEP, two Texas practitioners, and our own clinical experiences. This first draft was given as a survey to all of the senior students graduating in May, 2009. They were asked to tell us which of the four tracks in the curriculum (large animal, small animal, mixed animal, or alternative) they had followed and mark which of these competencies they had successfully completed during their four-year curriculum. Based on these survey results, the document was modified and sent to a selected group of clinicians in the large and small animal hospitals, as well as individuals from our service laboratories. The next draft was presented to approximately 70 faculty at the annual Curriculum Committee Retreat; the 21 members of College Curriculum Committee had one additional opportunity for input. Finally, a set of TVMA members were asked to comment on the final draft, and their input is reflected in the current document.
The AVMA Council on Education lists a set of nine core competencies for which each accredited school must develop direct and indirect measures for its students. For ease of reporting to the COE in the future, our list was organized based on these nine competencies:
1. Comprehensive Patient Diagnosis (Problem Solving Skills), Appropriate Use of Clinical Laboratory Testing, and Record Management
2. Comprehensive Treatment Planning Including Patient Referral When Indicated
3. Anesthesia, Pain Management, and Patient Welfare
4. Basic Surgery Skills, Experience, and Case Management
5. Basic Medicine Skills, Experience, and Case Management
6. Emergency and Intensive Care Case Management
7. Health Promotion, Disease Prevention/Biosecurity, Zoonosis, and Food Safety
8. Client Communication and Ethical Conduct
9. Strong Appreciation for the Role of Research, Continuing Education, and Professional Participation in Furthering Veterinary Medicine
Each student in the current first-year class (Class of 2013) will be required to complete each competency at an acceptable level prior to graduation. An electronic system has been developed to track and report student progress. Initially, successful completion of a task must be verified by a TAMU faculty member or technician. This step is important so that we can use this list as a curricular audit, i.e. are there gaps in what opportunities the College provides students to learn Day One Core Competencies through the curriculum. Eventually, we hope to have veterinarians that are supervising extern students be able to “check off” on the student’s lists. In the meantime, practitioners are quite welcome to use the list in their own setting for externs or students that are working at their hospitals on summer and holiday breaks. Although, we will not be updating the list more than one time per year, we will be very open to suggestions for changes to the following year’s list.
The current Day One Core Competencies List is available HERE. We expect this list to evolve and become more refined over time, and welcome the input of our colleagues.
