The January meeting will not include an examination review session, as has been the case in previous years. This month, I had the opportunity to participate in a national conference on veterinary bioethics at Tuskegee University. I took the opportunity to think about ethics and the licensing examination program. Item writers have an ethical responsibility to ensure that the items they write accurately reflect entry level private clinical practice. Item reviewers have an ethical responsibility not to disclose the content of the examination to others.
Candidates have an important ethical responsibility in the area of examination security.
All candidates must sign a statement that they will not disclose the content of the examination to anyone. This reflects the fact that licensing examinations are costly and time consuming to develop. Disclosure of items is a form of theft, and ultimately results in increased costs to other candidates, not to mention costs to society if unqualified individuals are able to pass the licensing examination using fraudulent means. Susan McDonough and Ken Meyer. These days, we tend to take computers for granted.