Journal of veterinary medical education最新文献

Generative artificial intelligence (gAI) is becoming increasingly prevalent in our daily lives. Students across multiple disciplines are using gAI for writing assessments and completing projects. This leads to the question: could gAI platforms perform similarly, worse, or better than veterinary students when asked to create discharge handouts for select veterinary neurological conditions? A total of 24 professionals and educators graded handouts based on content, clarity, client education, empathy, and professionalism for two canine neurological conditions (seizures and intervertebral disc disease). Each condition had handouts created by a high-performing student, a random/unknown student whose work was deemed to represent the average student at our institution, ChatGPT 4.0, and Google Bard. The high-performing student's handout scored higher in several categories compared with AI-generated handouts and scored statistically higher overall. Specifically, the high-performing student's seizure handout scored significantly higher in accuracy/completeness and client education than the Bard handout. Both student handouts scored significantly higher for empathy and client support than the AI tools. For the intervertebral disc disease handouts, the AI-generated handouts scored higher in clarity and organization than the random student handout, with the high-performing student's handout scoring higher in empathy and client support over the Bard-generated handout. Upon the conclusion of grading, reviewers completed a survey asking them to guess the authorship of each handout. Veterinary educators and professionals could not distinguish between gAI- and student-developed client handouts. However, the findings suggest that students have the potential to outperform current gAI technology in multiple areas, including conveying empathy.

To ensure veterinary students are prepared for clinical practice, curricula must provide opportunities for students to learn about the cases most frequently seen in practice. Currently, there is a gap in the literature with regard to the identification of common clinical topics encountered in equine primary care practice in the UK. This study aims to address this gap by utilizing text-mining techniques on electronic medical records (EMRs) to produce a ranked list of the most common clinical topics encountered in equine primary care in the UK. The study included 1,092,731 rows of data from 150,465 equine patients between 2012 and 2022, sourced from six primary care equine practices. Dictionaries were developed in the text-mining software and applied to the corpus of EMRs, enabling the identification of 30 common clinical topics. The clinical topics were ranked in order of their prevalence, and estimates of incidence rate per horse-year calculated for each. Results showed lameness, vaccination, sedation, dental, and worming as the five most frequently mentioned clinical topics in equine primary care EMRs in the UK. This work provides an evidence-based list of commonly encountered clinical topics in equine primary care practice, guiding educators to focus their teaching and curricula, and students to prioritize their learning. The results of this study provide data-driven validation of core concepts that should be prioritized within equine undergraduate curricula.

Veterinarians bridge the critical gap between animal and human health and can alert health agencies to potential health risks in cases of emergencies or disease outbreaks, making them a crucial ally in the fight against infectious diseases. Thus, training veterinarians in public health provides them with additional skills, knowledge, and the necessary tools in disease and hazard prevention. We conducted a national survey in the United States to determine the efficacy of doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM)-master of public health (MPH) and veterinariae medicinae doctoris (VMD)-MPH dual degrees, and we identified gaps and shortcomings in the curricula in order to improve the career outcomes of enrolled veterinary students. The survey was sent in 2020 to alumni of all the DVM-MPH and VMD-MPH programs and administered through Qualtrics. Key findings include that most participants were women (83.2%), the predominant age group was 30-39 years (61%), and 50.4% considered the MPH beneficial. The majority of respondents work in veterinary medicine or public health. Qualifications and veterinary networks were identified as the most useful for securing employment. About 31.1% felt their program prepared them moderately well for these jobs, while 68.9% indicated that the MPH did not affect their salary. Respondents also highlighted areas needing improvement in DVM-MPH programs, such as increased practical work-skill opportunities, mentoring, career support, and access to nonveterinary courses and students. These findings can be useful for veterinary and public health schools in developing curricula and opportunities that strengthen the preparation of veterinarians in public health.

CASPer (Computer-based Assessment for Sampling Personal characteristics), an online, open-response situational judgment test, screens applicants to educational programs early in the selection process for non-cognitive abilities. CASPer was applied in Purdue University's DVM admissions cycle in 2020-2021 in two ways: applicants met a threshold criterion of eligibility for further review by having a reported CASPer Z-score >-1.5; and applicants were awarded points for Z-score >0 during in-depth review. The requirement that applicants meet a threshold CASPer Z-score affected male, underrepresented minority (URM) and international students adversely: higher proportions of these individuals were eliminated early from admissions consideration. Among those with Z-score >-1.5, first-generation, male, URM, and international applicants scored lower, on average, than non-first-generation, female, and non-URM applicants. Additionally, Z-scores were correlated with undergraduate grade point average (uGPA). The correlation coefficient r of Z-scores with cumulative and core uGPA was 0.20 (p < .001) and 0.12 (p < .001), respectively, in all applicants. Hoping to select high-potential applicants without overemphasizing cognitive abilities, we expected CASPer Z-score to be independent from uGPA which is already weighted appropriately in our process. The nonrandom distribution of Z-scores systematically influenced early rejection and possibly biased later selection of applicants. Concerned that CASPer incorporation may have unintentionally narrowed access to DVM admissions for some applicant groups, and not seeing added value in a standardized test whose predictive validity remains understudied in veterinary medicine-a profession aiming to diversify its workforce-our admissions committee suspended CASPer as an admissions criterion until systematic, multi-source information becomes available within the profession.

Practical sessions using cadavers are one method of teaching clinical skills en masse to veterinary students, supporting students to learn the skills and gain the confidence to become Day One competent veterinarians. As confidence and competence are often conflated in Competency-Based Education approaches, in this study we used a pre-post survey design to evaluate 67 student self-ratings of confidence and self-assessed competence to explore whether a cadaver practical can change student confidence and self-assessed competence, and how comparable confidence and self-assessed competence are as measures. In a linear mixed effects model, we found that the practical improved the overall confidence score by 0.44 points (95% confidence interval [CI] [0.22, 0.66], t₍₁₂₀₎ = 3.97, p < .001). Self-assessed competence also increased by 0.60 (95% CI [0.41, 0.79], t₍₁₁₈₎ = 6.21, p < .001). However, although female students saw their overall self-assessed competence increase, they showed lower self-assessed competence scores by 0.87 points than males (95% CI [-1.47, -0.28], t₍₁₁₈₎ = -2.89, p = 0.005). Despite confidence and self-assessed competence being strongly associated, direct agreement between the measures in a weighted kappa test was weak (pre-practical κ_weighted = 0.49, [95% CI 0.33, 0.66], post-practical κ_weighted = 0.44, [95% CI 0.10, 0.28]). We discuss the implications of these findings.

There has been growing interest in knowledge exchange (KE) activities as a result of recent calls for higher education establishments in the UK to provide more evidence of how they serve society for the benefit of the economy, the public and the community. KE has been defined as "A collaborative, creative endeavor that translates knowledge and research into impact in society and the economy," where this exchange takes the form of sharing knowledge, experience, ideas, evidence, or expertise. While well established in the context of research, it is less clear what KE activities are in the context of teaching. The aim of this project was to use a collaborative approach to identify types of KE activity relevant for veterinary educators and undergraduate students (pre-veterinary registration), and ways of measuring these activities. Initially, a literature search identified four main overarching categories of interactions that KE activities for veterinary educators and undergraduate students could be assigned to: people-based activities, problem-solving activities, commercialization activities, and community activities. Second, a workshop with members of the wider veterinary education community evaluated these lists of activities and discussed how the impact of these could be measured. The lists generated provide a starting point for understanding how educators and undergraduate students can maximize their impact in relation to KE activities. It is expected that over time these will be built upon to represent the breadth of current and future activities undertaken in the clinical sciences. While the focus is on veterinary education, this framework can be applied to reviewing KE in a range of health care and client-facing disciplines.

The veterinary thesis, mandatory in many veterinary curricula, represents an important step in terms of students' autonomy and research-led education. The choice of the topic is crucial, especially when the student initiates it rather than accepting a teacher's proposal. To promote diverse thesis work and provide greater support to students, a collaborative game and preparatory activity have been designed with a focus on the thesis project. The game was developed to raise awareness among students about the challenges of creativity and feasibility. The training sequence began with a short presentation by the instructor about the ideation process and project management tools. Then, under the instructor supervision, the students played using a deck of cards and worksheets. In the first phase, each group of students drew four cards and used them to imagine an experimental or a clinical thesis topic. The cards represented the elements of a PICO-like question (Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome). In the second phase, the groups exchanged their forms with another group, allowing them to evaluate each other's work and suggest modifications. This evaluation phase was based on "De Bono's 6 thinking hats method," which encourages students to adopt different perspectives such as critical, creative, or objective thinking when assessing their peers' work. The student appreciation survey, conducted after the training, yielded positive results, particularly in terms of helping students identify different approaches to a topic and fostering collaborative peer discussions.

Lameness in horses resulting from foot pathology is very common. When investigating the cause of a lameness localised to the foot, the first step is most frequently radiographic imaging. Therefore, being able to identify normal anatomy and recognise pathology on radiographs is important for a veterinary medicine student to learn. Computer-aided learning (CAL) is becoming increasingly utilised in the teaching of students on medicine-related courses, especially post-COVID where online learning has been continued in hybridisation with in-person teaching.In this study, a low-cost CAL module was created focusing on anatomy and pathology of the equine foot on radiographic images and testing was carried out to evaluate how beneficial students found this resource for their learning. There were two research questions: 1. Can a useful CAL module be produced at low cost? 2. Will this CAL module function to increase student confidence? The CAL module was produced at no cost; similar CAL modules could be easily re-created using a similar module at a low-to-no cost. Three skills were reviewed: recognition of normal anatomy, identification of pathology, and selection of appropriate radiographic views for investigation of specific pathologies. A statistically significant increase in confidence of students' ability to recognise pathology and to select radiographic views for investigating specific pathologies when comparing pre- and post-resource confidence. Anecdotally there was a positive response to the resource: users found it useful for the intended purpose. Therefore, a useful CAL module was produced at low cost, and did indeed increase students' confidence in some areas investigated.

Performing drug dose calculations is an expected fundamental skill in veterinary medicine. Calculation errors are a significant contributor to medication errors in veterinary anesthesia and have the potential to harm patients. Investigating dose calculation errors in a clinical environment with live patients has not been reported in veterinary medicine. Identifying and reporting calculation errors can assist with teaching and mitigating future dose calculation errors. In a prospective, observational study, drug dose calculations included in the proposed anesthesia protocols of 53 third-year veterinary students for a canine and feline spay/neuter laboratory were reviewed. Calculation error incidence, type, and drugs involved were analyzed. A total of 686 drug doses were calculated for 83 patients. Twelve dose calculation errors were identified in nine anesthesia protocols, representing a protocol error rate of 10.8% (9/83) and an overall drug dose calculation error rate of 1.8% (12/686). The majority of errors (83.3%; 10/12) would have led to overdoses, whereas two errors (16.7%; 2/12) would have resulted in underdoses. Drug dose calculation errors are common during anesthetic planning by veterinary students. The occurrence of calculation errors poses a risk to patient safety, highlighting the need for effective teaching and training in this skill, as well as the role of error-reducing strategies such as independent double-checking of calculations.

With the growth of veterinary medicine and acknowledgment of the lack of diversity in the profession, it is necessary to educate future generations on the importance and growth of diversity, equity, and inclusion. However, few courses in the veterinary curriculum address this need. To fulfill such a need for one U.S. veterinary program, a veterinary student was mentored by faculty and staff to develop an elective course focused on cultural competency and humility in veterinary medicine. Through self-directed learning to design a course aimed at advancing veterinary students' knowledge of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the student progressed his knowledge of the topic while also being exposed to the logistical aspects of course design and potential as a future educator. The resulting student-driven, flipped classroom strategy yielded a positive discussion-based learning experience for its first student cohort and goals for its growth as a professional education course.