Creating the North American Essential Competency Profile

We recently spoke with Jan Robinson, a leader on the North American Competency Profile project, for her perspective and insight on the origin of this document. It is a priority for ICVA to inform the veterinary and assessment communities about our work.

Learn about the seven essential competencies that make a good practitioner:

ICVA has worked closely with partners in the United States and Canada to create the North American Essential Competency Profile for Veterinary Medicine, which outlines competencies in the veterinary field. It is a foundational document and will be used as a benchmark for different activities in regulatory veterinary medicine and for many purposes — including licensure requirements, quality assurance, remediation, reentry to the field, and more.

Essential competencies describe the essence of what makes a good practitioner, while identification and validation of competencies facilitate the articulation of consistent expectations about performance within the regulatory community.

The Essential Competency Profile comprises competencies and indicators within seven defined areas:

Jan Robinson currently serves as the Registrar and Chief Executive Officer for the College of Veterinarians of Ontario and has over 25 years of experience providing vision and direction to regulatory and public policy organizations. She transitioned to veterinary medicine in 2012 and first created conversation in Canada about the topic in 2017, after noticing that there was no specific document to refer to in the profession regarding competencies. The project was initiated in 2018, with the work primarily done from 2020 to 2021.

Noting that ICVA and the NAVLE focus on competencies across North America, the conversation extended past Canada and into the United States. Four core groups sponsored the project, including ICVA, the American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB), the Canadian Council of Veterinary Registrars (CCVR), and the College of Veterinarians of Ontario (CVO). These project sponsors were joined by the Canadian National Examining Board (NEB), the

American Association of Veterinary Medical Colleges (AAVMC), and the Educational Commission for Foreign Veterinary Graduates (ECFVG) to create a strong vision for the profile’s widespread distribution and use.

“We did focus groups and surveys to validate the competencies. Over 2,200 voices, in the end, validated the profile.” – Jan Robinson

The Essential Competency Profile was made possible by a 10-member Advisory Group, a 14-member Competency Development Task Force, a comprehensive external review and feedback initiative, an iterative refinement process, and a large-scale survey of veterinarians across Canada and the United States. The profile was validated in January 2022 and was officially accepted by all four sponsor organizations in August 2022.

“ICVA is pleased to have the opportunity to collaborate with our regulatory colleagues on this important resource, given our shared mission of protecting the public and animal health and welfare.” – Dr. Heather Case

For ICVA, the Profile provides a reference document with relevance for the annual NAVLE review process as well as future practice analysis projects. It is also an important tool for ICVA’s Communication Skills Assessment Task Force, which can refer to it when assessing and measuring competencies.

To introduce the new profile, Jan Robinson presented it at the American Association of Veterinary State Boards (AAVSB) Annual Meeting in September 2022. The Profile was disseminated this fall to all CEOs / EDs of veterinary regulatory organizations, all project partners, and all members of the task group. A new working group is anticipated to begin conversation in early 2023 in the veterinary regulatory community on how to best utilize the Profile in current work.

ICVA looks forward to continuing the conversation in the veterinary regulatory community on how to best utilize the Essential Competency Profile.