Veterinary Clinical Skills Committee

Composition and terms:

• The Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Clinical Skills Laboratory (CSL) manager will serve as ex officio voting members of the VSC committee. The Associate Dean of Academic Affairs will serve as committee chair responsible for calling meetings and seeing that minutes of meetings are recorded and posted.
• Volunteers should be solicited from the VM2 and VM3 class in May of each year. The Associate Dean of Academic Affairs will choose two representatives from each class from among volunteers in good academic standing. Student volunteers will serve one-year terms with the VM2 students eligible to serve a second year as VM3 students. Every attempt should be made for at least one student representative from VM2 and VM3 to attend regularly scheduled committee meetings.
• Volunteers should be solicited from the veterinary technical staff employed by the Veterinary Health Center hospital and diagnostic laboratories. Up to three will be chosen from the volunteers by the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs to serve a three-year term. Initial terms will be staggered. If there are fewer than 3 volunteers, personal attempts will be made to recruit at least 2 such volunteers.
• Volunteers should be solicited from among the faculty of each of the four departments, and from both large animal and small animal focus areas within the Veterinary Health Center hospitals and clinics. Faculty at both Wentzville and Kansas City clinics are eligible to serve. The Associate Dean for Academic Affairs will choose at least one member from each department and from both large and small animal focus areas of the Veterinary Health Center to serve a three-year term. Initial terms will be staggered. If there are fewer volunteers than needed to represent each area mentioned, personal attempts will be made to recruit volunteers. In case a faculty member cannot attend a meeting, they should try to find an alternate representative from their department or area.

Charge: 

The charge of the VCS committee is to oversee the use and integration of the CSL into the veterinary curriculum through efforts at engagement and development of clinical and professional skills through the use of models and simulations. Ideally, the CSL should be not used only for specific skills taught in specific courses but should be a resource for students throughout their education. The eventual goal will be to have the CSL staffed with a veterinary educator (e.g., RVT) able to teach students skills throughout the working day (approximately Monday through Friday, 8 to 5 pm). Ideally, use of the CSL will occur from the very beginning of the VM1 year until the very end of the VM4 year. Use of the CSL, as described here, includes off-site programs and areas such as the communications facilities available at the medical school.

Meetings: 

The VCS Committee should meet on at least a quarterly basis (e.g., January, April, August, and November). A summary (e.g., minutes) of each meeting should be recorded and posted to the CVM website after approval by committee members in attendance.

Minutes:

• March 17, 2023, Joint meeting of VCS and CVM curriculum committees
• February 24, 2023
• January 20, 2023
• December 9, 2022
• October 6, 2022
• September 14, 2022