| The Atlantic Veterinary College is currently undergoing a phase of curricular renewal, which comes at a time when there are increasing calls to re-evaluate the future of veterinary education and the profession. Past reports on the future of the profession consistently recognized the increasing importance of the nontechnical professional competencies for successful veterinary practitioners, yet we as a faculty do not necessarily have a clear picture of when or how these skills are addressed in our curriculum. Concurrently, there is increasing attention placed on the non-cognitive skills by the American Veterinary Medical Association's Council on Education for accreditation purposes. The convergence of these factors presents a timely opportunity for this study, which examines the delivery of these skills at AVC in the context of curriculum mapping of the official, taught, learned, and assessed curricula. It is an opportunity to focus attention and reflection on how we are delivering the soft skills, as well as introduce the technique of curriculum mapping as a powerful tool for curriculum management.;In the preclinical curriculum, an extremely limited number of courses are officially identified as addressing the nontechnical professional competencies. Those courses which are identified in the official curriculum as addressing the competencies are also identified as such by faculty and students in the taught and learned curricula maps. However, faculty and students also identify many additional courses where the competencies are addressed in the preclinical curriculum; most of these include implicit teaching/learning, behavioral observation/modeling, and unscripted anecdotes rather than explicit inclusion of the competencies. The official curriculum does not recognize the role of implicit teaching/learning in addressing the non-technical competencies. While there is good overall congruence between the taught and learned maps, students over-identify courses as addressing the competencies relative to faculty. It appears that faculty may underestimate the importance of implicit teaching/learning, as well as observation/modeling, in addressing the non-technical competencies.;Both faculty and students recognize the dichotomy between the preclinical curriculum and fourth year rotations. Both groups express frustration with the limitations of didactic teaching, and discuss the rewards of teaching and learning in rotations. These feelings are amplified when considering the non-technical competencies, which may be delivered in large part by behavioral observation/modeling. The results of this study suggest implications for curriculum design, to introduce more opportunity for practical, experiential learning in the preclinical curriculum.;This study used a mixed methods research approach. Data was collected from the major stakeholders in AVC education: current faculty and students, alumni, and employers of our graduates. Document analysis of existing survey instruments of alumni and employers was used for quantitative analysis. AVC faculty and students were invited to participate in interviews (faculty) and focus groups (students) to gather data for qualitative analysis. Delivery of nontechnical professional competencies was evaluated based on the following categories: communication, ethics, self-management, human-animal bond, practice management, and career knowledge/options. Curriculum maps were constructed to show which didactic and clinical (rotation) courses addressed each of the competencies. A separate map was constructed for the taught and learned curricula, and a master map was constructed to evaluate congruence between those perspectives. |
