The development and delivery of a systematic veterinary clinical skills education program at the University of Calgary

Abstract

The University of Calgary Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (UCVM) outcomes based, core-integrated curriculum model emphasizes integration of basic sciences, clinical and professional skills through horizontally integrated courses beginning in the first year of the program. The Clinical Skills course constitutes 20% of the curriculum for each of the first three years of the program. This article reviews the theoretical foundation, development, delivery and assessment of student performance in the clinical skills course, including creation of essential skill lists, development of clinical simulators, creation of learning sessions, incorporation of sessional instructors from the distributed teaching hospitals, and development of objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) assessments. © Read EK, et al.