The Development of Entrustable Professional Activities for Competency-Based Veterinary Education in Farm Animal Health

Abstract

Entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are professional tasks that can be entrusted to a student under a given level of supervision once he or she has demonstrated competence in these tasks. The EPA construct was conceived to increase transparency in objectives for clinical workplace learning and to help ensure patient safety and the quality of care. A first step in implementing EPAs in a veterinary curriculum is to identify the core EPAs of the profession. The aim of this study was to develop EPAs for farm animal health. An initial set of 36 EPAs for farm animal health was prepared by a team of six veterinarians and curriculum developers and used in a modified Delphi study. In this iterative process, the EPAs were evaluated until higher than 80% agreement was reached. Of 83 veterinarians who participated, 39 (47%) completed the Delphi procedure. After two rounds, the panel reached consensus. A small expert group further refined and reorganized the EPAs for educational purposes into seven core EPAs for farm animal health and 29 sub-EPAs. This study is an important step in optimizing competency-based training in veterinary medicine. Future steps are to implement EPAs in the curriculum and train supervisors to assess students’ ability to perform EPAs with increasing levels of independence.

Can we talk about trust? Exploring the relevance of “Entrustable Professional Activities” in dental education

“…To address these questions, we suggest examining how other professions navigate ensuring trust in learners to complete critical tasks related to the profession. The framework, known as Entrustable Professional Activities (EPA), has become a cornerstone for assessment in medical education and an emerging standard in nursing, pharmacy, and veterinary education 6‐9 . Dental education is in the early stages of exploring this promising model 11,12…”

Entrustable professional activities framework for assessment in predoctoral dental education, developed using a modified Delphi process

“…In our study, we used the Delphi method as a core process to build and assess consensus. The Delphi approach has been used to define EPAs in different health profession disciplines 18 and specialties in medical education, including 20 internal medicine, 21 pharmacy, 22 nursing, 23 and veterinary medicine 24 . In this method, a group of experts (from different locations) are asked individually for feedback through a survey.…”

Identifying entrustable professional activities for surgical skills training in companion animal health

“…The EPAs that were rated as relevant or very relevant (4–5) by at least 80 per cent of the participants were included in the framework. This threshold of 80 per cent is based upon experiences described in previously published scientific reports describing the application of the Delphi procedure 1 20–22 . If the relevance was rated under 80 per cent, the EPA was being rejected or adjusted based upon the narrative feedback and rated again in the following Delphi round.…”