Journal of veterinary medical education最新文献

There is an identified need to strengthen the field epidemiology workforce training in the Asia-Pacific region. In response, the Asia Pacific Consortium of Veterinary Epidemiology (APCOVE) developed an online training program consisting of 36 modules delivered asynchronously and synchronously across 6 months in 2022. We sought to explore the effectiveness of the program based on participant perception and knowledge acquisition. All participants (n = 139) were invited to participate in focus groups. Framework analysis was conducted using Biggs' 3P model as a conceptual framework. In total, 93/139 (67%) trainees completed all competencies (36 modules) and 74/139 (53%) trainees participated in one of 12 focus groups. Participants were from the Philippines (n = 28), Indonesia (n = 18), Vietnam (n = 16), Cambodia (n = 3), Papua New Guinea (n = 3), Laos (n = 3), and Timor-Leste (n = 3). They valued the interactivity of the modules, including online tools, calculators, and knowledge checks. Module content, including case scenarios, was relevant to the region and applicable to participants' workplaces. Suggestions for improvement included incorporating local face-to-face sessions to complement the online delivery. The median score for the end-of-competency assessment tasks ranged from 42.5 to 45 (out of 50), and the APCOVE online training program provided an effective and scalable framework to ensure access to up-to-date training resources across the Asia-Pacific region. To improve module access and increase engagement, asynchronous online modules are now available and downloadable in six languages. The provision of face-to-face sessions to complement asynchronous online delivery, and engagement from country partners as mentors, will increase effectiveness and sustainability.

Achievement goal orientation (AGO) defines student motivation and whether they are driven by learning and competence (mastery orientation) or performance markers, such as grades (performance orientation). Competency-based veterinary education aligns with a mastery orientation, particularly when students are assessed on the basis of achieving competence, rather than using grades. This study uses a mixed-methods approach to report the AGO of veterinary students and evaluate their responses to educational challenges, describe how they maintain motivation, and explore their perceptions of grades using AGO as a theoretical framework. Most students are more strongly mastery oriented but also typically have moderate to strong performance goal orientation. Focus group analysis shows evidence of both orientations in students' behaviors, regardless of their predominant orientation, and these behaviors are, at times, conflicting. Curricular overload is viewed as a significant educational challenge, exacerbating performance avoidance behaviors (e.g., procrastination). Students profess to enjoy educational challenge but are adept at constructing narratives around why some challenges are not considered fair or legitimate, which may suggest false mastery mind-set. They also tend to state preferences for pass/fail grading but have complex feelings about grades, and some desire objective feedback on performance relative to peers. In the absence of objective feedback, students leverage a variety of methods (both mastery- and performance-oriented) to maintain motivation and achieve comparisons with peers. Withdrawal of objective measures such as grades, grade point average, and class rank would need to be carefully coupled with sufficient feedback and support for students who may rely on these as motivators.

The Association of American Veterinary Medical Colleges competency-based veterinary education (CBVE) framework can be used to guide curriculum and assessment design and is intended to prepare veterinary graduates for Day One of clinical practice. However, while the framework defines curricular outcomes in terms of demonstrable competencies, it does not define the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes required to achieve those outcomes. In some human medical curricula, prioritized lists of clinical presentations guide curricular content, design, and assessment. These lists are based, in part, on practice analysis surveys. A prioritized list of this nature does not currently exist in veterinary medicine. We surveyed 1,706 veterinarians regarding the relative frequency and importance of 274 clinical presentations to generate a prioritized list by species. Acceptable statistical power was achieved for dogs, cats, and horses. These lists can be used in conjunction with the CBVE framework to inform curricular content and assessment decisions.

The higher education community is currently experiencing a significant sense of disruption due to the emergence of Generative AI (GenAI) tools. This study sought to establish baseline data that encompass usage rates, confidence, concerns, and opinions on aligned curriculum interventions from current students studying veterinary medicine in the United Kingdom across two institutions. A survey including items aligned to a series of published curriculum domains was designed and distributed to all students in two veterinary degree programmes. A total of 285 surveys (15.5%) were completed; students with a previous degree and older students were more likely to complete the survey. Likert scale items were analysed statistically, and free text data were coded and analysed for themes. In this survey, 40% of students reported never having used GenAI tools, and the median usage across both schools was once a month or less. Greater value was placed on additional curriculum support in relation to AI with age and previous higher educational experience. Key uses of GenAI were grouped into the following: Consolidation, Clarification, and Revision; Creation (Content, Ideas, and Alternative Formats); Grammar and Editing; and Social Uses. Key concerns included Environmental Issues and Sustainability, Accuracy and Trustworthiness of Information; Data Security and Ethics; Impact on Individuals and Society; and Academic Misconduct and Cheating. This study confirms that veterinary students in the United Kingdom appear to be slower to engage with GenAI technologies compared with other higher education students. They appear particularly attuned to the environmental impact of GenAI technologies. The professional nature of the program together with the assessment frameworks that typically exist may also be influencing the degree of students' willingness to engage with the technology.

In scientific fields such as veterinary medicine (VetMed), instruction is often content-focused and lecture-based, leaving insufficient room for students to make meaningful connections to the curricula or see themselves in related careers. Inclusive pedagogies such as engaged teaching and culturally relevant pedagogy help students to make connections between their lived experiences and academic content, and are associated with deepening students' motivation and interests. During the summer of 2024, Education and VetMed faculty from a large, research-intensive university collaborated to create a culturally relevant, engaged curriculum for a veterinary summer engagement program. This program was geared toward middle and high school students from racial-ethnic groups historically underrepresented in veterinary medicine. In this teaching tip, we highlight the ways VetMed faculty adapted their activities after collaborating with the Education faculty. Overall, the VetMed faculty focused on revising their activities around three core principles: connection, interaction, and relevance. The findings of this article showcase the ways in which these principles were enacted within the activities of the summer program, and the reactions the students had from participating in these activities. This pilot program exemplifies curricular ideas that veterinary medicine faculty can implement to create meaningful learning experiences in both K-12 pipeline programs and in higher education settings. Through supporting interdisciplinary collaborations, particularly between VetMed and Education faculty, we can foster learning environments that increase access and engagement to VetMed for youth from historically underrepresented groups.

Competency frameworks in medical and veterinary medical education highlight the importance of research within curricula to ensure a sound understanding of research and related principles of evidence-based medicine. This study describes topic themes and geographical location of projects carried out by students over a 14-year period as part of a well-embedded research element (the student research component) within a veterinary curriculum. The study explores faculty and student opinions on competences gained, aligned with the American Veterinary Medical Association and Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons core competences, and describes challenges encountered from both perspectives. A survey including items aligned to core research competences was distributed to all final-year students in a veterinary degree program. An aligned survey was distributed to project supervisors. The surveys contained a mixture of Likert scale and free-text items. Thirty-two percent of students and 46% of supervisors completed the survey. Likert scale items were analyzed statistically, and free-text data were coded and analyzed for themes. The study confirms the utility of research projects in supporting the development of core competences; students recognize their potential in highlighting awareness of their own limitations, while supervisors highlight their utility in the development of report writing and critical appraisal skills. Supervisor communication was recognized as a challenge for students, as were time management and generating project ideas. Supervisors considered that critical review and evaluation of evidence competences were developed to a greater extent than did all students in the study. Supervisors considered that students had gained all the research-based competences to a greater extent than graduate students, with the exception of improving their own awareness of their limitations. The study confirms a mismatch in faculty and student opinions on the competences gained through carrying out research projects and the value placed on these projects. Additional success factors are suggested in support of similar curriculum interventions.

Substantial expansion of enrollment in US veterinary medical educational programs is well underway. Meanwhile, important downward trends have been reported in high school and undergraduate student enrollments nationally, raising the critical question of potential concurrent downward trends in the size of the US veterinary medical applicant pool and the related applicant-to-seat ratio. This study was designed to analyze the total number of applicants to US colleges/schools of veterinary medicine longitudinally and to consider potential relationships to ongoing national undergraduate student enrollment trends. Historical data on the veterinary medical applicant pool and the number of first-year seats available were obtained from the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges. Undergraduate enrollment data, both historical and projected, were obtained from the US Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics. Regression analyses revealed a negative relationship between these two variables, which is counterintuitive. Based on these findings, projections of the applicant pool were performed using the simple ratio of undergraduate student enrollment to veterinary medical applicants in recent years. These projections were combined with information currently available on the expansion of veterinary medical educational programs to consider potential trends in applicant-to-seat ratios. Results suggest an upcoming softening of the applicant-to-seat ratio. This information will be useful for veterinary medical enrollment management planning-including formulation of proactive and progressive recruitment strategies-going forward.

In 2019, Bristol Veterinary School launched a 4-year Accelerated Graduate Entry Programme (AGEP) leading to Bachelor of Veterinary Science (BVSc) qualification. The new programme focuses on small-group, facilitated seven-step case-based learning (CBL). The CBL approach was built on previous experience with whole-class CBL in the existing 5-year BVSc curriculum. This article summarizes the challenges of managing a significant curriculum change with implementation of the new CBL format and describes the results of four projects: investigating design of physical and digital spaces; evaluating CBL in partnership with students; determining the support required for faculty and students to enable improved delivery of CBL; and student reflections on CBL. Communication among students was enhanced in teaching rooms by arranging furniture to enable easy visual contact and the ability to connect laptops to a large display screen. Students valued multimedia online case resources released in advance. Informal team-building sessions were suggested by students and implemented with the aim of developing cohesion within groups and overcoming some of the identified challenges of groupwork. Equitable distribution of workload was a key challenge identified by students alongside some of the difficulties with ensuring engagement when teaching was moved online unexpectedly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Measures to assist students with workload distribution and additional training for students and faculty were implemented alongside processes for managing challenging groupwork dynamics. Working in partnership with students to evaluate CBL led to adoption of a co-creation model for subsequent curriculum development work and enabled greater insight into the student experience.

The transition from veterinary school to clinical practice is a critical and challenging phase that is marked by managing client expectations, ethical dilemmas, financial constraints, and time pressures-factors that can negatively affect well-being. Given these challenges, understanding early-career veterinarians' perspectives on their education and preparedness for clinical practice can help identify strengths and gaps in training. Therefore, the objective of this study was to explore the experiences and perceived gaps in pre-practice life and veterinary education that were described as affecting the mental well-being of early-career veterinarians as they transitioned into clinical practice. This qualitative study employed a hermeneutical phenomenological methodology to examine the lived experiences of 21 early-career veterinarians who graduated from Canadian veterinary colleges. Semi-structured interviews were analyzed using template analysis and revealed four key themes: the erosion of self-confidence, the importance of communication skills, challenges related to perfectionism and standard of care, and insufficient mental health support for the transition period. The findings highlight both strengths and gaps in veterinary training, which can inform the development of more effective educational strategies and support systems to improve the transition into clinical practice.

Global climate change negatively impacts human and animal health, a challenge that continues to grow. Veterinary students and professionals alike often care about the significant environmental impact of biomedical research and sustainability in general. However, time and appropriate resources often are lacking to drive change. Therefore, we implemented an experiential learning opportunity for students in a veterinary summer research program to equip students with the required knowledge and opportunities to promote sustainability efforts in their summer research environments. After completing an online training course introducing key principles of sustainable biomedical science, students proposed and assessed different ways to reduce their research group's environmental footprint. This program resulted in numerous benefits. First, students actively participated in improving their respective laboratory's sustainability efforts by proposing actions to their mentors and peers. Second, awareness in the broader College of Veterinary Medicine and Biochemical Sciences community spread, and senior colleagues were introduced to new ideas, leading to downstream sustainability improvements even after students concluded their research in their labs. Third, students were able to showcase their pride and engagement at conferences, in poster presentations, and on their professional resumes. As this program took relatively little effort to organize and maintain, we can only urge other veterinary colleges to pursue this opportunity.