1. Observation Skills: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must be able to participate actively in all demonstrations and laboratory exercises in the DVM professional curriculum, and to assess and comprehend the condition of all patients assigned to them for examination, diagnosis, and treatment.
2. Communication Skills: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students, must be able to communicate effectively and sensitively, with clients and owners of animals, in order to elicit information, assess verbal and non-verbal communications, and be able to effectively and efficiently transmit information to these clients and owners of animals, fellow students, faculty, staff, and all members of the veterinary health care team. Communication skills include speaking, reading, and writing, as well as the observation skills described above.
3. Motor Skills: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must have sufficient motor function to collect and derive information from animal patients by palpation, auscultation, and other diagnostic maneuvers, be able to perform basic laboratory tests, carry out diagnostic procedures, and be able to execute the contact with animal patients reasonably required to provide general care and emergency treatments.
4. Intellectual/Conceptual, Integrative, and Quantitative Abilities: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must be able to measure, calculate, reason, analyze, and synthesize. Problem-solving, the critical skill demanded of veterinarians, requires all of these intellectual abilities. In addition, Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must be able to comprehend three-dimensional relationships and to understand the spatial relationships of structures. Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must have the capacity to perform these problem-solving skills in a timely fashion.
5. Behavioral and Social Attributes: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must possess the emotional health required for full utilization of their intellectual abilities, the exercise of good judgment, the prompt completion of all responsibilities attendant to the diagnosis and care of animal patients, and the development of mature, sensitive, and effective relationships with clients and owners of animals and others. Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must also be able to tolerate taxing workloads, function effectively under stress, adapt to changing environments, display flexibility, and learn to function in the face of uncertainties inherent in the clinical problems of many animal patients. Compassion, integrity, concern for others, commitment, and motivation are personal qualities which all applicants/veterinary medical students should possess.
6. Animal Handling and Husbandry; Veterinary Medicine and Surgery: Applicants/Veterinary Medical students must be capable of recognizing the temperament of domestic and non-domestic animal patients and of making decisions related to the handling, restraint, and safety of the animal as well as the safety of clients and animal owners, the veterinary medical team, and people in the immediate area. It will be necessary for veterinary students to safely and humanely make physical contact with animal patients of the domestic species for diagnostic and treatment purposes.