Development of a veterinary emergency open standard competency framework using a competency-based model of medical education.

OBJECTIVE: To address the shortage of emergency veterinarians, the profession is exploring accelerated training pathways. We sought to contribute to the solution by developing the foundation for an open standard, competency-based veterinary emergency training curriculum for use by any program. We also developed a curricular delivery, tracking, and assessment system to demonstrate how the framework can be integrated into training programs.  DESIGN: Hybrid Delphi method.  SETTING: Academia and referral practice.  ANIMALS: None. INTERVENTIONS: None. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: An emergency veterinary competency framework was developed by adapting the human Model of the Clinical Practice of Emergency Medicine, which aligns with the Competency-Based Veterinary Education framework, to produce 4 areas of core competency: Patient Care, Interpersonal/Communication, Professionalism, and Practice-based Learning/Improvement. A comprehensive list of veterinary emergency skills was generated and organized within the framework utilizing the hybrid Delphi method. An initial survey completed by 133 emergency and critical care specialists and emergency room clinicians produced data regarding the value of specific skills. An 11-member focus group consisting of survey participants iterated upon the survey results to produce a master library of skills and cases, including 56 Patient Care, 43 Interpersonal/Communication, 11 Practice-based Learning/Improvement, and 20 Professionalism skills, as well as 155 case types. The curricular delivery system tracks and assesses case management proficiency and development of knowledge and professional skills using a patient care eLearning program and simulation training environment.  CONCLUSIONS: The increasing need for emergency veterinarians is a shared industry-wide challenge. To contribute toward a collective solution, we have undergone an evidence-based process to create the foundation for an open standard competency framework composed of a library of skills and cases. We offer this open standard framework to the veterinary profession and hope it continues to grow and evolve as we drive toward developing competency-based training programs that address the shortage of emergency veterinarians.

A systematic review of digital badges in health care education.

OBJECTIVES: A challenge to competency-based medical education is the verification of skill acquisition. Digital badges represent an innovative instruction strategy involving the credentialing of competencies to provide evidence for achievement. Despite increasing interest in digital badges, there has been no synthesis of the health care education literature regarding this credentialing strategy. The present authors proposed to address this gap by conducting the first systematic review of digital badges in health care education, to reveal pedagogical and research limitations, and to provide an evidence-based foundation for the design and implementation of digital badges. METHODS: A systematic search of the medical education literature from January 2008 to March 2019 was conducted using MEDLINE, Web of Science, CAB Abstracts and ScienceDirect. Included studies described digital badges in academic or professional medical education programmes in any health care profession. Included studies were appraised and quality assessment, methodological scoring, quantitative analysis and thematic extraction were conducted. RESULTS: A total of 1050 relevant records were screened for inclusion; 201 full text articles were then assessed for eligibility, which resulted in the identification of 30 independent papers for analysis. All records had been published since 2013; 77% were journal articles, and 83% involved academic health care education programmes. Scores for quality were relatively moderate. Thematic analyses revealed implications for the design and implementation of digital badges: learner characteristics may moderate student outcomes; the novelty effect can negate the value of digital badges, and educators may overcome instruction-related challenges with digital badges using design and implementation strategies such as the creation of badging ecosystems. CONCLUSIONS: The results indicate a growing momentum for the use of digital badges as an innovative instruction and credentialing strategy within higher education and provide evidence for outcomes within a learner-centred, competency-based model of medical education. There is a paucity of research to support the design and implementation of this credentialing system in health care education. The potential benefits necessitate future high-quality analyses reporting institutional, patient and workplace-based outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness and moderating conditions of digital badges.