TY - JOUR
AU - Thompson, Jamie-Leigh
AU - MacKay, Jill R D
AU - Blacklock, Kelly
PY - 2022
DA - August
TI - Veterinary students’ views on surgical EPAs and the impact of COVID-19 on clinical competence development
JO - Veterinary Record
DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/vetr.1978
AB - Background: The primary purpose of this study was to understand veterinary students views on the described key surgical entrustable professional activities (EPAs) and to understand how COVID-19 restrictions have impacted their clinical skill and competence development.  Methods: Final-year veterinary students at a single institute completed a web-based survey distributed by email. The survey aimed to characterize five constructs regarding EPAs and a specific five-point Likert-Like scale was created asking explicitly worded questions for each construct.  Results: One hundred and ten students responded. The cohort agreed that the previously described key surgical EPAs were clinically important and relevant but over 50% of the respondents felt that they had no substantial experience with them and were not confident or comfortable performing them. Additionally, the majority of students (95%) felt their clinical development was negatively impacted by COVID-19. Conclusions: The results of this study show that the key EPAs proposed, are considered important skills by the undergraduate cohort described and that experience levels when entering final-year are lacking, potentially due to reduced exposure to clinical cases, influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic.
PB - Wiley
UR - https://www.research.ed.ac.uk/en/publications/19568212-66cd-413b-8fda-ab5c62108cf9
KW - Coronavirus (COVID-19)
KW - Education
ER