Validation of a Rubric Used for Skills-Based Assessment of Veterinary Students Performing Simulated Ovariohysterectomy on a Model.

This article focuses on the validation of a rubric designed to assess veterinary students’ performance of a simulated ovariohysterectomy (OVH), a common surgical procedure in small animal practice. Using a validity framework, 13 experienced veterinarians evaluated the rubric’s content, resulting in a 22-item instrument with good content validity. The rubric demonstrated excellent to good internal consistency and fair inter-rater reliability when used to assess students performing OVH on a model, and students’ scores moderately correlated with their subsequent live surgical performance. These findings support the rubric’s validity as an assessment tool in competency-based veterinary education, emphasizing the importance of validated instruments for reliably measuring surgical skills prior to live animal surgery.