School of Veterinary Medicine (TUSVM) with the primary objective of ... cies about the performance and training of veterinarians in general and TUSVM ...
Outcomes Assessment at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine Lawrence J. Kleine Q Dawn Geronimo Terkla Q Grayson Kimball INTRODUCTION Outcomes assessment was undertaken at Tufts University School of Veterinary Medicine (TUSVM) with the primary objective of providing information needed to make databased decisions related to the curricular changes that were being planned and instituted at the time. Secondary objectives were to assess the perceptions of TUSVM constituencies about the performance and training of veterinarians in general and TUSVM graduates in particular, to construct a database to aid future decision making, and to comply with the AVMA Council on Education’s possible accreditation requirement for veterinary schools and colleges to implement outcomes assessment of their programs. This publication is limited to comparing the relative values assigned by TUSVM alumni to specific questions about skills, training, attitudes, and behaviors with those of veterinary employers and the TUSVM faculty and to assessing their perceptions of future employment opportunities for veterinarians.
MATERIALS AND METHODS An Outcomes Assessment Committee was formed in the fall of 1993 to develop the procedures and instruments needed to fulfill the objectives described above. Committee membership included TUSVM faculty and administrators, veterinarians not affiliated with TUSVM, some of whom were TUSVM alumni, and the Director of the Office of Institutional Research (OIR) for Tufts University. The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and the Executive Associate Dean of TUSVM were ex-officio members of the committee. Discussions initially centered on the type of information needed, which constituencies to survey, the methods to be used to acquire the data, and the uses of the results. Previous outcomes assessment efforts of US veterinary schools and other types of educational institutions were also reviewed. An in-house comprehensive paper survey was developed. Whenever possible, parallel questions were designed in order to facilitate comparisons across populations. However, in some instances population-specific questions were developed. Both questions asking respondents to ranking items in order of priority, level of importance, or level of agreement and open-ended questions were used. Comments were also solicited to give the respondents an opportunity to explain their responses or to editorialize. Phone surveys, focus groups, and a more specific paper survey to selected sub-populations were considered as instruments to follow up on or clarify the original survey results if needed. The populations surveyed were as follows: all TUSVM alumni; all TUSVM full-time faculty; all known employers of TUSVM graduates; all the internship and residency directors listed in the American Association of Veterinary Clinicians Matching Program; and all veterinarians in New England for whom the AVMA office had mailing addresses.
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All the members of the entering TUSVM classes scheduled to graduate from TUSVM in 1998 through 2005 were surveyed during their orientation period. All the members of the exiting classes from TUSVM from 1994 through 2001 were surveyed the week prior to their graduation. Gender distribution in each of the responding populations corresponded closely to the gender distribution of each total population of alumni and faculty surveyed. The gender distribution of the population of employers surveyed was not known. The response rates and numbers of respondents in each survey are given in Table 1. Table 1: Response rates to survey Population Employer 1994 2000 Faculty 1994 1999 Alumni 1983–1993 (1994 survey) 1983 1984 1985 1986 1987 1988 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 Alumni 1985, 1990, 1995 (2000 survey) Exiting students 1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 Entering students 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005
N
Response rate
441 384
17% 12%
54 51 393 23 35 28 32 33 37 42 39 39 42 40 106
86% 59% 64% 64% 73% 52% 56% 54% 62% 66% 62% 65% 61% 56% 60%
50 55 60 51 70 67 73 66
78% 85% 80% 70% 95% 88% 90% 87%
76 79 77 79 75 74 70 78
96% 100% 98% 100% 98% 93% 89% 98%
JVME 29(1) © 2002 AAVMC
A letter from the TUSVM Dean accompanied each survey form to explain the purpose of the survey, the importance of candid responses, and the need for a high response rate and to assure respondents that their replies would be kept anonymous. Individual respondent anonymity was maintained by having all the completed survey forms mailed to the OIR, where the data were recorded and collated. The OIR coded the forms so that the data could be used in future longitudinal studies. We are reporting the responses of three populations—survey of 1985, 1990, and 1995 alumni (N = 106), conducted in 2000; faculty survey of 1999 (N = 51); and employer survey of 2000 (N = 384)—to 32 rating questions and one openended question. The rating questions referred to the importance of veterinary schools’ providing training in 23 specific areas and the importance of nine specific attitudes and skills to success. The open-ended question asked the respondents to state what fields would offer the best employment opportunities for veterinarians in the future. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) test was applied to the rating scores of each
group to estimate differences between the ratings of the groups. A probability of Faculty Alumni > Employers
Faculty > Employer Faculty > Employer Alumni > Employer Employer > Faculty Alumni > Faculty
Alumni > Employer
Rating scale: 1 = Not important, 2 = Somewhat important, 3 = Important, 4 = Critical. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05 ) between groups are indicated under “Comment.”
Statistically significant differences in the ratings were found between groups in the following areas: • “Business management” was rated higher by alumni than by employers. Employers rated “business management” higher than faculty. • “A current and broad view of the profession” was rated higher by faculty and alumni than by employers. JVME 29(1) © 2002 AAVMC
• Faculty ranked “contributing to the scientific literature” higher than alumni, and alumni ranked it higher than employers. • “Veterinary ethics” was rated higher by alumni and employers than by faculty. • “Public policy issues” were rated higher by alumni and faculty than by employers. 33
When responding to the question “How important is each of the following to success in your professional veterinary position?” (Table 3), all groups rated “positive work attitude” as most important (alumni 3.72, employers 3.67, faculty 3.76). All three groups rated “ability to improve animal care” lowest (alumni 2.35, employers 2.32, faculty 2.35).
• “Knowledge of profession” was rated higher by alumni than by faculty and employers. • “Self-confidence” was rated higher by alumni than by employers. • “Maturity” was rated higher by alumni than by employers.
There were five questions with statistically significant differences between groups:
• “Ethical judgment” was rated higher by alumni than by faculty.
• “Initiative and motivation” was rated higher by faculty than by employers. Table 3: Means of responses to “How important are each of the following to success in any professional veterinary position?” Positive work attitude Initiative and motivation Empathy Knowledge of profession Self-confidence Maturity Ethical judgment Ability to balance personal and professional responsibilities Ability to improve animal care
Faculty 3.76 3.68 3.17 3.08
Employers 3.67 3.44 3.27 3.10
Alumni 3.72 3.45 3.37 3.43
3.23 3.34 3.39 3.15 2.47
3.23 3.22 3.54 3.03 2.32
3.44 3.39 3.67 3.07 2.35
Comment Faculty > Employer Alumni > Employer Alumni > Faculty Alumni > Employer Alumni > Employer Alumni > Faculty
Rating scale: 1 = Not important, 2 = Somewhat important, 3 = Important, 4 = Critical. Statistically significant differences (p < 0.05 ) between groups are indicated under “Comment.”
Responses to the open-ended question “What fields will offer the best employment opportunities for veterinarians in the future?” are found in Table 4. Biotechnology was ranked highest by alumni (27%) and faculty (32%). Employers rated clinical specialties highest (29%). The highest rating for the three groups together was clinical specialties, followed by biotechnology and research. Specific clinical specialties most often identified were emergency care and diagnostic imaging. Table 4: “What fields will offer the best employment opportunities for veterinarians in the future?” Fields identified Alumni Employers Biotechnology 27% 15% Clinical specialties 24% 29% Research 11% 11% Animal behavior 3% 1% Telemedicine or Internet 3% 1% Lab animals
