For colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States, accreditation by the AVMA Council on Education (COE) is a critical requirement with important implications for both the institution and its students. Certain federal loan programs, for instance, are available only to students attending accredited colleges, and many state licensing boards list graduation from a COE-accredited institution as a prerequisite for licensure. More broadly, however, accreditation by the COE ensures that colleges meet accepted standards of quality and are committed to the concept of continuous improvement.

According to the AVMA, one of the most important purposes of accreditation is to ensure that “graduates have achieved specified learning goals and are prepared to begin professional practice.”¹ At the very core of this is identifying the knowledge, skills, and attributes required for new graduates to succeed in entry-level positions in the veterinary profession. At the Texas A&M University College of Veterinary Medicine & Biomedical Sciences (TAMU), faculty and administrators have recently developed a set of new graduate outcomes that define the specific knowledge, skills, and attributes graduates of the veterinary program would be expected to possess at the time of graduation and be able to employ the first day of practice. Once created, the new graduate outcomes became the framework for the college's curriculum and served as the foundation for subsequent curriculum reviews, enabling the college to identify gaps and deficiencies in the curriculum and objectively evaluate, streamline, and optimize the teaching and learning process.

With the new graduate outcomes framework in place, TAMU is able to focus its efforts on strengthening individual aspects of the curriculum to better achieve the designated outcomes. Material not directly contributing to the new graduate outcomes can more easily be eliminated, and content can be better aligned with outcomes, leading to improved student and program success. This is especially important given that as the body of veterinary knowledge expands, educational content could easily overwhelm the 4-year program.

The new graduate outcomes are based on the 9 clinical competencies listed in standard 11 (“Outcomes assessment”) of the COE's accreditation policies and procedures.² However, to fully encompass all of the qualities necessary for a successful veterinary professional in today's society, we felt it was necessary to include 4 additional competencies. These additional competencies consist of nonclinical skills and behaviors we believe are integral for successful veterinary professionals, such as team collaboration, practice management, and leadership skills; an appreciation of personal wellness, diversity, and inclusiveness; an understanding of legal and regulatory compliance; and a basic understanding of animal welfare (Appendix 1). In addition, we developed a series of performance criteria for each of the 13 clinical competencies that can be used to help guide the selection of student learning experiences and serve as a basis for determining whether students are achieving each expected outcome. For example, the performance criteria for new graduate outcome 1 (comprehensive patient diagnosis [problem-solving], appropriate use of clinical laboratory testing, and record management) include specific standards to ensure that new graduates can obtain an appropriate signalment and history, perform a physical examination, develop a problem list and differential diagnosis list, construct a diagnostic plan and analyze diagnostic findings, and prepare an appropriate medical record (Appendix 2).

The new graduate outcomes were reviewed for practicality and comprehensiveness through surveys of and focus-group sessions and individual interviews with internal and external stakeholders, including TAMU students, alumni, and faculty; employers of our graduates; and practitioners working alongside our new graduates. Preparing successful graduates for the future takes intensive collaboration among visionary program leaders, dedicated faculty, informed practitioners, candid alumni, and hard-working students. We regard the new graduate outcomes as a living document, and our goal is to continue dialogue with our stakeholders to ensure the new graduate outcomes remain relevant even as our profession grows and changes.

The development of the new graduate outcomes demonstrates our success in bringing disparate groups together to work toward a common goal. At the college, the new graduate outcomes now serve not only as the foundation from which all current and ongoing educational development and review activities are designed, but also as the tool through which students and the veterinary educational program are assessed.

Our intent is to share the new graduate outcomes as a framework for veterinary education with colleagues, both nationally and internationally. We recognize it is important for veterinary educational programs to maintain the freedom to model their curricula independently. As such, colleges can be expected to adapt the new graduate outcomes to reflect and support the needs of their individualized programs. Nevertheless, as Dr. Peter Eyre recently stated, “We are obliged to train veterinarians who can provide for society's needs. Thus it is imperative to ask ourselves whether present-day veterinary education is optimally effective.”³ We consider the new graduate outcomes to be an effective, innovative, and customizable model for successful achievement of the necessary components of veterinary education. We are interested in receiving feedback on the outcomes and in collaborating with others to improve them. A complete list of the performance criteria for all 13 new graduate outcomes is available at vetmed.tamu.edu/dvm/ngos.