Technical Standards

Background

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine provides an outstanding veterinary education that prepares candidates to pursue a wide range of career opportunities, in clinical and related fields. As veterinary educators, we are not only providing an academic education but preparing candidates to enter a profession that serves others. We expect our graduates to be competent and compassionate veterinarians who meet all requirements for veterinary licensure and are fully prepared to enter the profession. Therefore, all students are expected to fully and successfully achieve competence in the broad-based, non-tracking curriculum set out by the Faculty.

To earn a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (D.V.M.) degree at Cummings School, candidates^[1] must demonstrate the retention and application of the required scientific and clinical knowledge and reasoning required for all of the major and minor domestic species and relevant zoological medicine species, the required competencies in clinical and professional skills, and ethical standards consistent with the professional degree.

Conditions of learning and working in veterinary medicine include intense workloads, long and irregular hours, interactions with frightened or dangerous animals, and exposure to potentially harmful chemicals and pathogens. Candidates will face a diverse clientele and demanding situations that may be stressful both physically and emotionally.

The D.V.M. program incorporates didactic lectures, small group discussions, hands-on clinical and professional skill courses, extensive self-directed study, and intensive practical and written examinations. In accordance with the accreditation standards, the D.V.M. program delivers a considerable amount of material in a relatively short timeline, and is in-person and participatory. Clinical training necessitates long and often irregular hours, limited breaks, and the physical and emotional agility and stamina needed to conduct the diagnosis, treatment, and general husbandry of various animal species under a variety of conditions and with a range of clientele. A variety of animals will be encountered, including, but not limited to, food and fiber producing animals (cattle, sheep, goats, New World camelids, pigs), horses, dogs, cats, wildlife, zoo, and exotic species.

In accordance with accreditation and licensing standards as well as relevant state and federal law, the D.V.M. program is required to ensure that D.V.M. candidates can practice clinical medicine upon graduation even if a candidate has an avowed intent to practice only a narrow part of clinical medicine or pursue a non-clinical career.

Candidates for and in the D.V.M. program must be prepared to meet the expectations and requirements of the program.
_______________________________
¹Candidates: The term “candidates” refers to individuals who are seeking admission to the D.V.M. program at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine as well as current students who are candidates for retention, promotion, or graduation.

The Need for Technical Standards

We have an ethical responsibility for the safety, appropriate care, and wellbeing of patients, and for the safety and wellbeing of clients, staff, and the community who will be served by our graduates, as well as the candidates themselves. The ability to achieve technical standards is required to ensure clinical and professional competency as a veterinarian, and meet licensure requirements. D.V.M. candidates must be able to elicit, receive, and process a variety of inputs (e.g., tactile, visual, and auditory) and then generate and execute the appropriate decisions, professional skills, and physical clinical actions within an appropriate timeframe.

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine is committed to ensuring our program is accessible to candidates and encourages candidates with disabilities to seek reasonable accommodations.

To be accepted into and complete the D.V.M. program candidates, must have the capacity to achieve the technical standards required in the classroom, laboratory, professional, and clinical settings throughout the entirety of their pre-clinical and clinical program with or without accommodations. The technical standards aim to communicate the competencies needed to successfully complete the D.V.M. program. All candidates are held to the same technical standards, with or without accommodations.

Achieving the Technical Standards

The technical standards describe the necessary intellectual, physical, behavioral, and social competencies (skills and abilities) all candidates must achieve to meet the curricular requirements and outcomes. Cummings School employs multiple modalities of knowledge acquisition and assessment, and candidates must be able to participate in multiple testing conditions and platforms. Technical standards should not deter candidates who can successfully complete the curriculum with a reasonable accommodation. However, reasonable accommodations cannot fundamentally alter the essential academic requirements and necessary competencies of the educational program or pose a direct threat to patient safety or the safety of others.

The technical standards delineated must be met with or without reasonable accommodation. Some skills and activities (e.g., surgical procedures, spay/neuter, etc.) must be completed within a reasonable time period. In achieving the technical standards of the D.V.M. program, candidates are not permitted to use human intermediaries who aid or alter the student’s decision making or who directly complete the necessary competency.

After reviewing the technical standards, candidates who determine that they will need reasonable accommodation, prior to or at any time during the program, to fully engage in the program and achieve the technical standards should contact the Accommodations Office to confidentially discuss their needs. Accommodations are never retroactive; therefore, timely requests are essential. Candidates in the D.V.M. program must attest that they are able to meet the technical standards, with or without an accommodation.

Essential Technical Standards for Veterinary School Admission, Continuation, and Graduation

Observation Standards

Candidates must be able to evaluate a patient accurately at a distance and in close proximity in a rapidly evolving situation.
Candidates must be able to directly receive and accept information from a variety of formats including, but not limited to: demonstrations, images, simulators, computer programs and videos, diagnostic imaging modalities, lectures, experiments, reading text, anatomic dissection, and procedures in preclinical and clinical course work, and to rapidly assimilate large volumes of technically detailed and complex information presented in formal lecture, small group discussions, individual learning activities, and individual clinical settings.
Candidates must be able to perceive three-dimensional relationships and understand the spatial relationships of structures.
Candidates must be able to identify and respond appropriately to signs of fear, aggression, and other potentially dangerous behaviors exhibited by various animal species and to interpret the needs and reactions of clients. This may require additional sensory perception.
Candidates must be able to accurately process information received by whatever sensory function is employed or required in a timely manner.
These skills require the use of vision, hearing, and the somatosensory system or the functional equivalents.

Communication Standards

Candidates must be able to communicate in oral, written, and electronic forms, in-person, over the telephone, and on a digital platform.
Candidates must be able to communicate effectively, efficiently, and in a timely manner with all members of the learning community and healthcare team.
Candidates must be able to establish effective professional relationships in order to elicit, disseminate, and provide information.
Candidates must be able to record information accurately and clearly.
Candidates must be able to respond to rapidly evolving situations in clinical settings by understanding and conveying information essential for the safe and effective care of patients in a clear, unambiguous, and rapid fashion.

Motor Function Standards

Candidates must, after a reasonable period of time, possess the capacity to directly and independently perform physical examinations; preventative, diagnostic, medical, surgical, and emergency procedures of all common domestic species.
Candidates must possess appropriate motor functions to meet the required clinical competencies, including but not limited to routine general care, surgery, and emergency treatments.
These actions may require some coordination of both gross and fine muscular movements, balance, and equilibrium.

Physical Standards

Candidates must be able to reliably and fully participate across the curriculum and program, including but not limited to small group learning activities, use of necessary digital platforms, and clinical rotations which by necessity involves participation in extended procedure times and long activities.
Candidates must be able to work variable and irregular shifts, including evenings, overnights and weekends, and function as a collaborative, effective and productive team member within the work hours defined by Cummings School.
Candidates must be able to have sustained contact with multiple species of animals and the environments in which they are housed and treated. During such contact, the individual must be able to perform the necessary physical procedures required for medical care for such animals.

Intellectual Standards

Candidates must be able to independently problem-solve, requiring that they be able to obtain, retrieve, analyze, integrate, and synthesize information from multiple sources efficiently and accurately in a multi-task setting where they may experience a high level of stress, fatigue, and distraction.
Candidates must be able to independently recall and retain information in a timeframe appropriate to the situation.
Candidates must possess the ability to measure, estimate, and calculate efficiently and accurately, with and without digital or electronic assistance.
Candidates must be able to understand three-dimensional relationships and the spatial relationships of structures.
Candidates must be able to independently collect, organize, prioritize, retain, analyze and synthesize large amounts of detailed and complex information to apply in problem-solving and decision-making in all clinical and educational settings, efficiently and accurately.
Candidates must be able to independently process information from, and make decisions applicable to multiple situations simultaneously and in the time period appropriate to the situation.

Behavioral and Social Standards

Candidates must be able to exercise good judgement and engage in the prompt completion of all responsibilities involved in the diagnosis and care of patients, while working under rapidly changing circumstances.
Candidates must be able to develop effective working relationships with clients, fellow students, faculty, staff, and the entire healthcare team.
Candidates must possess the ability to meet the professional and ethical principles and code of conduct of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
Candidates must demonstrate an understanding of the expectations critical to meeting the professional obligations of a veterinarian and to providing patient care through their engagement in clinical, diagnostic, and other work.
Candidates must understand the legal and ethical aspects of the practice of veterinary medicine, as well as function within both the law and the ethical standards of the veterinary profession.
Candidates must be able to display flexibility and adaptability, and be able to function in a fast-paced, changing environment with the uncertainties and stressors inherent in the clinical problems of many of their patients.
Candidates must be able to contribute to collaborative and constructive learning environments, effectively and respectfully give, receive, comprehend, and act on informal and formal constructive feedback from others (faculty, staff, peers, clients), and take personal responsibility for making appropriate positive changes based upon such feedback.

Students will be required to sign the attestation before matriculation and periodically throughout their training in order to affirm their ability to meet these Technical Standards, with or without accommodations.