The concept of veterinary competence:

perspectives and challenges

Liz Norman

Massey University

Every way of seeing is also a way of not seeing

cited by Lingard, L. (2009). What we see and don’t see when we look at ‘competence’: Notes on a god term.

Advances in Health Sciences Education, 14(5), 625-628.

Kenneth Burke (1935)

A competent veterinarian…

“applies knowledge, skills, attitudes, communication and judgement to the delivery of appropriate veterinary services in accordance with their field of veterinary practice” (Veterinary Council of New Zealand).

Consideration is given to performance of tasks to an acceptable standard on a consistent basis.

AVBC: Essential competences

• knowledge and understanding

• skills– information gathering

– analysis and judgment

– clinical skills

– communication and teamwork

– compassion, courtesy, respect, honesty, fairness;

– business knowledge

– self-management and group leadership;

• attitudes to– ethics and cultural values

– animal welfare

– communication with clients

– referral

– teamwork

– balancing client needs

– role in biosecurity

Competency

• increasing emphasis on inclusion of more

generic aspects of competence such as problem

solving, empathy, self-monitoring and ethical

behaviour

Competency as behaviour

• operationalising an abstract concept

– but can we capture its essence completely?

Ginsburg, S., McIlroy, J., Oulanova, O., Eva, K., & Regehr, G. (2010). Toward authentic clinical evaluation: Pitfalls in the pursuit of

competency. Academic Medicine, 85(5), 780-786.

Competency as behaviour

• operationalising an abstract concept

– but can we capture its essence completely?

• tendency to look at it in parts

– but is the whole greater than the sum of the parts?

Lammers, R. L., Temple, K. J., Wagner, M. J., & Ray, D. (2005). Competence of new emergency medicine residents in the

performance of lumbar punctures. Academic Emergency Medicine, 12(7), 622-628.

Competency “seen” differently by

different people

Lavine, E., Regehr, G., Garwood, K., & Ginsburg, S. (2004). The role of attribution to clerk factors and contextual factors in

supervisors' perceptions of clerks' behaviors. Teaching and Learning in Medicine, 16(4), 317-322.

Competency “seen” differently by

different people

Significant differences between practice type:

• Communication skills: small animal vs equine

and mixed

• Critical and creative thinking: equine vs mixed

• Empathy: small animal vs food animal and

equine

• Sound judgment: equine vs small animal

Conlon, P., Hecker, K., & Sabatini, S. (2012). What should we be selecting for? A systematic approach for determining which

personal characteristics to assess for during admissions. BMC Medical Education, 12(1), 105.

Competency as complex, and

integrated

• increasing emphasis on competency as a

holistic, integrated concept where aspects are

combined in a complex combination as

specifically required by the situation

– should we look at interactions and relationships rather

than parts?

– how can we account for context?

Ginsburg, S., Regehr, G., & Lingard, L. (2004). Basing the evaluation of professionalism on observable

behaviors: A cautionary tale. Academic Medicine, 79(10 SUPPL.), S1-S4.

Levels of competency?

• minimum standards or aspirational?

• “veterinarians must be compassionate, altruistic, and dutiful” (Walsh et al, 2001),

• “veterinarians are proactive leaders in the profession and are recognized voices of authority in important areas, such as animal welfare and One Health medicine” (NAVMEC, 2011).

Walsh et al. (2001). Defining the attributes expected of graduating veterinary medical students. Journal of the American Veterinary

Medical Association, 219(10), 1358-1365.

North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium. (2011). Roadmap for veterinary medical education in the 21st century:

Responsive, collaborative, flexible. North American Veterinary Medical Education Consortium. Retrieved from

http://www.aavmc.org/Veterinary-Educators/NAVMEC.aspx

Competency – individual or group

characteristic?

• implications

– knowledge acquired through interaction with people,

equipment, animals

– directs attention to skills in social awareness and

social co-ordination

• closed loop communication

• mutual performance monitoring

• adaptive and supportive behaviour

Lingard, L. (2012). Rethinking competence in the context of teamwork. In B. D. Hodges & L. Lingard (Eds.), The

question of competence: Reconsidering medical education in the twenty-first century (pp. 42-69). Ithaca, USA:

Cornell University Press.

Competency as identity

• is competence how we behave or is it deeper than

that?

• looking at competency from a identity perspective

enables to frame it terms of being rather than doing

• has implications for how we conceive of veterinary

training

– developmental

– socialisation

Jarvis-Selinger, S., Pratt, D. D., & Regehr, G. (2012). Competency is not enough: Integrating identity

formation into the medical education discourse. Academic Medicine, 87(9), 1185-1190

Competency as identity

• is competence how we behave or is it deeper than

that?

• looking at competency from a identity perspective

enables to frame it terms of being rather than doing

• has implications for how we conceive of veterinary

training

– developmental

– socialisation

Jarvis-Selinger, S., Pratt, D. D., & Regehr, G. (2012). Competency is not enough: Integrating identity

formation into the medical education discourse. Academic Medicine, 87(9), 1185-1190

Competency as socialisation

• clinical training provides an opportunity for

strong socialisation into the professional ways of

being as well as ways of acting

• involves a wide variety of people: other vets,

clients, technical staff, peers (both veterinary

and non-veterinary)

http://www.slideshare.net/liznorman