The COE standards of accreditation can be viewed here. These standards are reviewed and revised on a regular basis, so it’s important to check in and keep up to date with them.

COE dictates that processes must be in place to provide remediation for any of the nine competencies in which students do not demonstrate competence. Each core VM4 rotation uses a global rating scale rubric customized to that rotation, and each rubric item is mapped to an AVMA COE clinical competency area. Each competency is assessed in multiple rotations.

When a 4^th year student’s average score across rotations in any competency area falls below minimally competent, a memo is sent by the Office of Curricular and Student Assessment to the student, the department chair and the instructor of the rotation indicating a need for remediation. The instructor works with the student to develop and complete a remediation plan, and verifies the deficiency has been addressed. When the remediation is complete, the instructor notifies the Office of Curricular and Teaching Support. Students must meet any outstanding remediation requirements to graduate. You can check this Canvas Remediation Development page to utilize as well as contribute to a library of sample assignments for remediation. Please contact ocats@iastate.edu if you cannot access the canvas page.

The COE standards of accreditation can be viewed here. These standards are reviewed and revised on a regular basis, so it’s important to check in and keep up to date with them.

The overall objectives of the curriculum are that by the time of graduation, graduates of the ISU CVM will:

1. Demonstrate mastery of the principles and mechanisms underlying disease and health and the history of important animal diseases to support the competent practice of veterinary medicine.
2. Handle patients safely and effectively.
3. Perform anesthesia and manage pain effectively.
4. Attend to animal welfare in all aspects of veterinary practice including behavior, husbandry, animal handling and care, and client education.
5. Diagnose common diseases and abnormalities in a variety of animal species including effective use of the medical interview, physical exam, and appropriate diagnostic testing (including clinical laboratory testing).
6. Manage records effectively and in adherence with all relevant laws and professional standards.
7. Create appropriate treatment plans for a variety of common diseases/conditions.
8. Plan and perform common surgical procedures and ensure appropriate aftercare.
9. Manage common medical cases, including performance of common clinical procedures, appropriate medical decision making, and patient referral when appropriate.
10. Manage emergency and intensive care cases.
11. Utilize health promotion strategies that prevent the transmission of zoonotic and other diseases, and ensure food safety.
12. Communicate effectively with clients and co-workers.
13. Seek out and utilize new information and research findings relevant to cases encountered in every day practice.
14. Function as ethical, respectful professionals.
15. Manage financial and other business functions in a way that facilitates professional success.

Academic Standards and Policies for Students

The Assessment Matrix can help you determine the best assessment for the type of skill or outcome you are trying to assess. Each skill has an example outcome, appropriate assessment methods, and recommended feedback or assessment tool. Click here to download the matrix.

• Competency-Based Veterinary Education Milestones
• Association of American College and Universities (AACU) Rubrics
• Clinical Reasoning Rubrics
  • ART: The Assessment of Reasoning Tool ART (Click here to see the tool)
    • Thammasitboon, Rencic, J. J., Trowbridge, R. L., Olson, A. P. J., Sur, M., & Dhaliwal, G. (2018). The Assessment of Reasoning Tool (ART): structuring the conversation between teachers and learners. Diagnosis (Berlin, Germany), 5(4), 197–203. https://doi.org/10.1515/dx-2018-0052
    • Thammasitboon, Sur, M., Rencic, J. J., Dhaliwal, G., Kumar, S., Sundaram, S., & Krishnamurthy, P. (2021). Psychometric validation of the reconstructed version of the assessment of reasoning tool. Medical Teacher, 43(2), 168–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159X.2020.1830960The mini-CEX: mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Norcini et al. 2003; Donato et al. 2008)
  • The mini-CEX: a method for assessing clinical skills
    • Norcini, J. J., Blank, L. L., Duffy, F. D., & Fortna, G. S. (2003). The mini-CEX: a method for assessing clinical skills. Annals of internal medicine, 138(6), 476-481.
    • Norcini, J. J. (2005). The mini clinical evaluation exercise (mini‐CEX). The clinical teacher, 2(1), 25-30.
    • Donato, Pangaro, L., Smith, C., Rencic, J., Diaz, Y., Mensinger, J., & Holmboe, E. (2008). Evaluation of a novel assessment form for observing medical residents: a randomised, controlled trial. Medical Education, 42(12), 1234–1242. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2923.2008.03230.x
  • IDOCEE: Integrated Direct Observation Clinical Encounter Examination
    • ABOUNA. (1999). The Integrated Direct Observation Clinical Encounter Examination (IDOCEE)-an objective assessment of students’ clinical competence in a problem-based learning curriculum. Medical Teacher, 21(1), 67–72. https://doi.org/10.1080/01421599980066
  • PBEAR: Problem Representation, Background Evidence, Analysis, Recommendation
    • Carter, C., Akar-Ghibril, N., Sestokas, J., Dixon, G., Bradford, W., & Ottolini, M. (2018). Problem representation, background evidence, analysis, recommendation: an oral case presentation tool to promote diagnostic reasoning. Academic Pediatrics, 18(2), 228-230.
  • IDEA: Interpretive summary, Differential diagnosis, Explanation of reasoning, Alternatives tool
    • Baker, E. A., Ledford, C. H., Fogg, L., Way, D. P., & Park, Y. S. (2015). The IDEA assessment tool: assessing the reporting, diagnostic reasoning, and decision-making skills demonstrated in medical students’ hospital admission notes. Teaching and learning in medicine, 27(2), 163-173.