Veterinary Intern Program for Entrustable Professional Activities Skills, a.k.a. Intern Boot Camp

The University of Tennessee College of Veterinary Medicine (UTCVM) Department of Large Animal Clinical Sciences has developed an intensive training program that all large animal veterinary interns are required to complete at the onset of their internship year. This program was designed to establish a uniform approach to entrustable professional activity (EPA) skills deemed essential by the large animal faculty. These EPA skills emphasize the clinical approaches and skills that interns should understand and demonstrate competency in early in their internship year. The EPA program, completed over 4 consecutive days, was coined the “Intern Boot Camp” and structured to fuse case-based lecture discussions and hands-on wet labs designed to develop or improve skills and techniques. At the conclusion of the boot camp, participants were given an evaluation survey to provide feedback on the program. The results were overwhelmingly positive, with 90% of the participants giving the program a rating of 5 on a scale ranging from 1 (poor opinion or experience) to 5 (excellent opinion or experience). Nearly 95% of participants stated that they felt more prepared for their internship year after attending the boot camp, and 100% of the participants indicated that they would recommend this program to future candidates. Given the positive outcomes over the past 4 years, the implementation of the Veterinary Intern Entrustable Professional Activities program (Intern Boot Camp) is considered a valuable component of the veterinary intern training program and could readily be adapted to other programs.