MINI REVIEW article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Humanities and Social Sciences
This article is part of the Research TopicEnhancing Veterinary Access Through One Health and Interprofessional CollaborationsView all 18 articles
Methodologies to Assess Community-Based Animal Health Workers Curricula and Training Programs: A Mini Review
Provisionally accepted
- 1College of Veterinary Medicine, Ohio State University, Columbus, United States
- 2The Ohio State University College of Public Health, Columbus, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Introduction: Well-trained and supervised community-based animal health workers (CAHW) are key contributors to the veterinary workforce with significant potential to increase access to veterinary care for underserved communities. Recognizing their value, the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH) recently published the Competency and Curriculum Guidelines for CAHWs to help harmonize their training within and across countries. This recent advancement must be accompanied by a methodology for curriculum and training assessment to determine whether existing CAHW training programs meet the established recommendations. Methods: Using PRISMA guidelines, a literature review was conducted to explore the current assessment practices in CAHW training programs, aiming at guiding the development of a curriculum assessment tool. The articles were thoroughly reviewed, and relevant information was extracted and analyzed using the Kirkpatrick Model for training evaluation and the competency-based education (CBE) framework. Results: Of the 203 publications screened, seven met the selection criteria and were included in the review. Most of the authors utilized multiple methods such as interviews, surveys, and direct observation to assess different training effectiveness levels (reaction, learning, behavior, and/or results) and competency types (knowledge, skills, and/or abilities). Conversational methods of assessment were preferred, and both learners (CAHWs) and their clients (i.e., livestock owners) were frequently engaged in the process. Conclusion: This review highlights the need to develop and implement standardized curriculum and training assessments to complement the recent WOAH guidelines and, ultimately, advance CAHWs’ proficiency and animal healthcare delivery.
Keywords: Community-based animal health worker, competencies, Curriculum, review, training assessment methods
Received: 27 Jun 2025; Accepted: 17 Dec 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Matos, Hoet, Bessler and Berrian. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Amanda M Berrian
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.