Technical Standards

The Arkansas State University College of Veterinary Medicine (A-State CVM) is committed to educating and training outstanding veterinary clinicians and scientists who will promote and protect the animal and public health within their local, state, regional, and national communities. We have an ethical responsibility to achieve this while concurrently safeguarding the well-being of our patients, clients, faculty, staff, students, and other stakeholders.

Graduates of A-State CVM’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) degree program will be fully prepared to practice independently and autonomously in all entry-level positions within the veterinary profession upon graduation. They will possess the necessary basic scientific knowledge, clinical skills, and professional ethics to fulfill the commitments in the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) Veterinarian’s Oath. The broad knowledge and skills required are taught in alignment with the Competency Based Veterinary Education (CBVE) Model and adhere to the accreditation polices of the American Veterinary Medical Association Council on Education (AVMA COE). The AVMA COE requires graduating students to attain the following nine competencies:

Comprehensive patient diagnosis (problem-solving skills), appropriate use of clinical laboratory testing, and record management
Comprehensive treatment planning, including patient referral when indicated
Anesthesia and pain management, patient welfare
Basic surgery skills, experience, and case management
Basic medicine skills, experience, and case management
Emergency and intensive care case management
Health promotion, disease prevention/biosecurity, zoonosis, and food safety
Client communications and ethical conduct
Critical analysis of new information and research findings relevant to veterinary medicine

These competencies are taught through a 3-year pre-clinical and a 1-year clinical curriculum, involving direct patient care and communication with clients, colleagues, and veterinary professionals. The AVMA COE requires that student achievement in both the pre-clinical and clinical curricula, as well as post-graduation, be measured, analyzed, and used to improve the program as part of the outcome monitoring requirements for accredited DVM programs.

To ensure graduates attain entry-level knowledge in all nine competency domains, DVM candidates (prospective students, applicants, and/or enrolled DVM students) must be able to perform minimal essential functions and technical standards in the following categories: 1) Observation; 2) Communication; 3) Motor; 4) Intellectual, Conceptual, Integrative, and Quantitative; 5) Behavioral and Social Abilities; and 6) Ethics and Professionalism. These standards seek to balance the rights of the candidates, the safety of the veterinary patient and clients, all individuals part of the pre-clinical and clinical components of the DVM program, the minimum competency-based skills required in the CVM curricula, AVMA COE accreditation requirements, and conditions for licensure within the US.

Achieving the Essential Functions and Technical Standards

The A-State CVM is committed to actively collaborating with candidates to ensure our program is accessible, fostering a respectful, accountable culture through specialized disability support and encourage candidates with disabilities to seek accommodations to help support their successful completion of the DVM program. A-State CVM does not discriminate based on disability, and all candidates will be considered without regard to their disability status.

It is the candidate’s responsibility to contact the A-State Access and Accommodation Services (AAS) to establish eligibility for accommodations and to notify the Associate Dean for Admissions, Student Programs, and Research of the potential need for reasonable accommodations, after which the A-State CVM will work collaboratively with the A-State AAS to provide reasonable accommodations to facilitate enrollment and participation of qualified individuals with disabilities. These accommodations cannot alter the integrity of the curriculum, nor can they exclude any elements in the pre-clinical and clinical components deemed essential to the education of a veterinarian. Accommodations cannot include the use of human intermediaries to aid or alter the candidate’s decision making or who directly complete the required competencies for the candidate. Accommodations required by the DVM candidate cannot pose a direct threat to the candidate, patients, clients, or any other individuals involved in DVM program. The accommodations cannot interfere with or disrupt the educational experiences of other candidates nor create an undue hardship for the A-State CVM. Timely requests are essential, as accommodations may take time to implement and cannot be granted retroactively. Due to the clinical nature of our programs, some candidates may not qualify for enrollment or continued enrollment, which may limit access to A-State CVM's academic programs.

Technical Standards

Admission and continued enrollment are contingent upon the acknowledgment and ability to meet the following technical standards with or without reasonable accommodation:

Observation Skills Standard

Candidates must be able to actively engage in acquiring information from in-person, direct observation in all aspects of both the pre-clinical and clinical coursework. Candidates should be able to assess a patient and evaluate findings accurately, detect changes in patient behavior, physical and mental status to provide appropriate veterinary care. Candidates must use skills which require the use of vision, hearing, and touch or the functional equivalent.