Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) are units of activity that early-stage professionals perform in the workplace that necessitate simultaneous integration of multiple competencies. EPA #6 requires students to perform a common surgical procedure on a stable patient, including pre-operative and post-operative management. Castration is one of the most common surgeries performed by equine primary care practitioners and is considered an “entry-level competency” for veterinary graduates entering equine private practice, however, to our knowledge there are no equine castration models available for veterinary student education. Therefore, we developed an inexpensive, low-fidelity model of equine field castration and evaluated it using a mixed-methods approach. Two different groups of students, with or without model experience, completed surveys before and after live horse castration. Students who used the model also completed model specific surveys. Videos of the students completing the model were evaluated by at least two different equine veterinary faculty using a 15-point rubric, and inter-rater reliability of the rubric was determined. After completing the model, students reflected on strengths and weaknesses of their performance. From our student survey results, we determined that student attitudes toward the model were mostly positive. Interestingly, there were several student attitudes toward the model that became significantly more favorable after live horse castration. Prior to live horse castration, there was no significant difference in confidence in model vs. no-model groups. Following live horse castration, students who used the model had higher confidence in procedure preparation and hand-ties than students who did not use the model, but they had lower scores for confidence during patient recovery. When reflecting on model castration, students most commonly cited preparation and surgical description as strengths, and ligature placement and hand-ties as weaknesses. Experts provided several suggestions to improve the model, including incorporation of emasculators and the need for better model stabilization. Our findings suggest that both students and veterinary educators feel that this low-fidelity model has educational value. Rubric performance metrics were favorable, but additional steps are needed to improve grading consistency among educators. Future research will determine whether student performance on the model is predictive of competence score during live-horse castration.

可信赖的专业活动 (EPA) 是早期专业人员在工作场所执行的活动单元，需要同时整合多种能力。EPA #6 要求学生对稳定的患者执行常见的外科手术，包括术前和术后管理。阉割是马初级保健从业者进行的最常见的手术之一，被认为是进入马私人诊所的兽医毕业生的“入门级能力”，但是，据我们所知，没有可用于兽医学生教育的马阉割模型。因此，我们开发了一种廉价、低保真的马场阉割模型，并使用混合方法对其进行了评估。两组不同的学生，有或没有模特经验，在活马阉割前后完成调查。使用该模型的学生还完成了特定于模型的调查。学生完成模型的视频由至少两个不同的马兽医师使用 15 分评分标准进行评估，并确定评分标准的评分者间可靠性。完成模型后，学生们反思了他们表现的优势和劣势。根据我们的学生调查结果，我们确定学生对该模型的态度大多是积极的。有趣的是，有几个学生对该模型的态度在活马阉割后变得明显更加有利。在活马阉割之前，模型组与非模型组的信心没有显着差异。活马阉割后，使用该模型的学生比不使用该模型的学生对程序准备和手系带的信心更高，但他们在患者康复期间的信心得分较低。在反思模型阉割时，学生最常将准备和手术描述视为优势，而将结扎放置和手系带视为劣势。专家们提供了一些改进模型的建议，包括加入去势器和需要更好的模型稳定性。我们的研究结果表明，学生和兽医教育工作者都认为这种低保真模型具有教育价值。Rubric 绩效指标是有利的，但需要采取额外的措施来提高教育工作者之间的评分一致性。