Evaluation of a practice-based ambulatory program in food animal medicine, surgery, and herd health management.

摘要

The educational value of a practice-based ambulatory programme used at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine was evaluated. Phase I involved use of interviews and focus groups to assist in development of the questionnaireused in phase II, a retrospective cohort study. The pretested questionnaire was sent to a study population consisting of all graduates of the School of Veterinary Medicine, between 1987 and 1994 as well as a control group who were randomly selected fromthe 1994 AVMA list of veterinarians. Control-group veterinarians were matched on the basis of professional activity, region and year of graduation. 728 of 1067 veterinarians completed the questionnaire in phase II of the study (response rate, 68%). Thepractice-based ambulatory programme at the University of Wisconsin-Madison compared favourably with university-based ambulatory programmes in volume of experiences and perceived educational quality. Regardless of rotation type, female students were significantly less likely to observe or perform 12 specific clinical procedures and were significantly less likely to rate instructional quality as excellent or very good, compared with male students. It is concluded that practice-based ambulatory rotations can be a good alternative to existing university-based ambulatory rotations. It is suggested that implementation of these programmes should emphasize performance of procedures while striving to ensure participation of female students.