Clinical Year Veterinary Students' Expectations of New Graduate Independence Exceed Their Self-Perceived Competence and Expectations of Community Practitioners

Veterinary medicine is unique in that graduating veterinarians can be licensed to practice independently at the time of graduation. A veterinary curriculum needs to not only prepare graduate veterinarians to meet the expectations of their professional community but also ensure those veterinarians have an accurate perception of expected job requirements. This paper evaluates and compares veterinary students' perceived expectations of graduate-level independence with their self-perceived competence over their clinical (fourth) year. Additionally, we compare these findings to practitioner expectations of graduate-level independence. A survey assessing nine technical and three non-technical categories was distributed to clinical year students at the beginning and end of their clinical year at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Veterinary Medicine (UW-SVM). These results were compared to previously obtained survey data from community practitioner members of the Wisconsin Veterinary Medical Association (WVMA). Results indicate an improvement in student self-perceived competence in technical tasks over the clinical year, with the final measures of self-perceived competence aligning with community practitioner expectations of graduate-level independence. However, our results demonstrate a significant difference between student expectations of graduate-level independence, their self-perceived competence, and the community practitioner expectations of graduate independence. These results indicate that veterinary students have unrealistic expectations of their expected independence at graduation and that their self-perceived competence cannot meet these perceived expectations of independence. This misalignment and perceived self-deficit could perpetuate stress and burnout. Further investigation into the cause of this misalignment may help inform educational interventions that encourage students to set realistic expectations.