NAVMEC releases executive summary from second national meeting

Washington

--The North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium (NAVMEC) released its executive summary of its second national meeting yesterday.

Dr. Ken Andrews, NAVMEC facilitator, reports that while participants found that veterinary education needs to change, there are many "different methods, technologies and curricular approaches to consider."

The three-day national meeting in Kansas City on April 29-May 1 set the stage for the grand finale in Las Vegas on July 14-16. This meeting will address the relationship between education, accreditation, testing and licensure, NAVMEC reports.

At the Kansas City meeting, some of the improvements suggested for current veterinary veterinary education models included:

• Consideration of problem-based learning and learner-managed, self-paced delivery.

• More visibility on the importance of non-private areas of specialty.

• Non-technical and technical skills to be more integrated, not considered as separate discrete courses.

• Selection of students with desirable skills, knowledge and aptitudes on admission -- although evidence from human medicine does not confirm the efficacy of this strategy, NAVMEC reports.

• Improve teaching competencies of faculty, particularly in the use of technologies in a blended learning environment.

• More emphasis on primary care and wellness.

• Improved use of distance learning, specifically to accelerate and reduce the cost of completing pre-requisites.

• Student team selection based on learning styles.

• Provide mini-sabbaticals to refresh and develop faculty.

• Place greater value on teaching outcomes...

• Use flexible programming to allow for career changes and second-career students.

• Standardized pre-requisites and entrance exams in North America.

• Increase use of stakeholder partnerships.

Andrews adds that a presentation on human medical education offered key suggestions for veterinary education too, including:

• ensuring stakeholder participation in the design of assessment systems;

• considering a single pathway for licensure for North American and international graduates; and

• considering multi-step NAVLE exams to accommodate early foundation and late specialization.

NAVMEC reports that a more detailed report will be posted soon on www.navmec.org. Following NAVMEC's July meeting, a final report will be created to include recommendations on implementation which will be presented to the American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges' Board of Directors this fall.