A workshop used virtual reality headsets to immerse the students in various situations. Photo by Jennifer Serling

One thing that stood out, however, was the European way of assessing practical or psychomotor skills called the Objective Standardised Clinical Examination or OCSE. While the U.S. does utilize rubrics, it varies between institutions while the OSCE remains constant throughout the various countries that use it, and it is also a timed examination. The conference also provided three hands-on workshops at SLU consisting of virtual reality, an example of an OSCE skills assessment, and a virtual anatomy table. The virtual reality headsets immersed the students in various situations. We were able to "visit" a veterinary clinic and perform certain tasks such as hooking up IV fluids, giving injections, restraining a dog, and performing venipuncture on a jugular vein, and then transferring the blood into the appropriate blood tube. This was a fascinating way to see how the school trains their veterinarians and veterinary nurses to perform in a low-stakes scenario that is immediately applicable in real life.

The OSCE skills required students to draw blood from the jugular vein of an equine patient and apply a bandage to a distal extremity. This was done not on a real horse but a life-sized model which not only anatomically correct but had "vessels" that allowed students to practice drawing blood on an animal before attempting it on a live patient.

Resources

Sveriges Veterinärförbund. (n.d.). Www.svf.se. Retrieved September 30, 2023, from https://www.svf.se/in-english/

Veterinary nurse. (n.d.). Jordbruksverket.se. Retrieved September 30, 2023, from https://jordbruksverket.se/languages/english/swedish-board-of-agriculture/animal-health-staff/veterinary-nurse

Vetnnet. (2023). Vetnnet. https://www.vetnnet.com/

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