Survey of veterinary technical and professional skills in students and recent graduates of a veterinary college

Objectives-To determine perceptions of veterinary technical and professiona l skills among veterinary students and recent graduates. Design-Cross-sectional study. Sample Population-281 students and 142 recent graduates from the Ontario Ve terinary College. Procedure A survey was designed and administered to first- through fourth-y ear students and veterinarians who had graduated either 1 or 6 years before survey administration. Results-Overall response rate was 70%. Learning about technical and profess ional skills was highly valued. Most participants felt they had not receive d instruction about professional skills, but those who had felt more compet ent about them. Perceptions of competence increased slightly with increased comfort discussing emotional veterinary issues with instructors. Neither g ender nor increased age was related to increased feelings of competence. Al most all fourth-year students felt competent and comfortable about examinin g an animal with the client present, assessing suffering, diagnosing parvov irus infection, performing surgery, and working as group members. However, many did not feel competent or comfortable about delivering bad news, setti ng time limits yet providing quality service, helping clients with limited funds make treatment decisions, dealing with demanding people, and euthanas ia. Feelings of competence and comfort were closely related but were not id entical. Conclusions and Clinical Relevance-In the interests of best preparing entry -level veterinarians, technical and professional skills need to be emphasiz ed in a learning environment where students feel comfortable discussing emo tional veterinary issues. A professional skills curriculum addressing under lying self-awareness, communication, and interpersonal issues, as well as p rocedural matters, would likely increase the proportion of fourth-year stud ents who feel competent and comfortable about professional skills by the en d of their undergraduate training.