I found interesting post on lawyers web site: Someone asking for help on legal representation for CPE. google parts of it to find original post at justanswer dot com.
What do you think?
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Hi Lucy, My name isXXXXX great to hear the details and the nuances of my issue. I live in Dallas,TX and the board I want to sue for breach of contract is ECFVG. Its in Schaumburg,IL. I would like to know if you offer consulting service or if you could represent such a case even though you may be in some other state. I am providing details of what happened. I can prove my passing on test as I have made detailed observations on the record. They are not giving me access to my records. Please peruse the details and let me know how I could approach this case or even for a possible representation from you. Thank You
I will go over the brief details of exam and timeline of events so I can present a clearer picture of my claims.
There are several steps to be cleared for practicing Veterinary medicine in USA for a foreigner.
Degree evaluation - I got clearance that it is equivalent to DVM and need to pass clinical Proficiency Exam (CPE here after) to practice.
English proficiency: I passed this
NAVLE ( North American Veterinary Licensing Exam) : I passed this in April 2012.
CPE: There are 7 tests in this part. All practical exams to be taken while being evaluated by University teaching doctors or veteran /Emeritus professionals.
The 7 tests are : Anesthesia, Surgery, Equine Medicine, Small animal Medicine,Large animal medicine, Necropsy, and Radiology.
Rules for clearing CPE: All 7 tests have to be taken at a University or Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas. If all 7 tests are cleared in one shot, one can practice. If not, at least 4 tests have to cleared to get 2 chances on the remaining 3 tests. If the remaining 3 tests are not cleared in the 2 chances, everything resets and one has to start all over again and take all 7 tests and go through the same procedure.
My time line and experiences:
December 2010: I took all 6 (at that time 6 only) at Western Veterinary Conference in Las Vegas and passed only 2. I appealed the decision on Radiology and Necropsy and begged to pass me on that section( it was a narrow call) so that I can retake the other 3 instead of retaking everything. The board rejected the appeal.
June 2011 : I retook the test..all 7 of them ( the format has changed from this year)..at Oklahoma State University and passed Equine,Necropsy,Small animal and Large animal medicine. I did not pass Surgery, Anesthesia and Radiology. I did not appeal any of their decisions as I did make minor mistakes and prepared to retake them again. On the Equine section, the professor even complemented me for coming prepared thoroughly.
February 2012: I retook the remaining 3, that is Surgery, Anesthesia and Radiology at Missouri State University. I passed Surgery and Radiology. I failed Anesthesia. The reasons given for failure were 9 minor mistakes. The rule is that if a candidate makes more than 4 minor mistakes then he/she has to retake anesthesia again. I definitely knew that I did not make 9 mistakes and some of them could be proved because of the anesthesia record I had written on the exam. I requested access to my record to prove my point. They denied the request and asked me to appeal. I did that and they rejected the appeal. I went to the next step and petitioned for a review. They rejected that also without ever giving me access to my record. If I had passed that I would have been practicing veterinary medicine now.
Septemebr 2012: Since the appeal did not go through, I had to retake anesthesia. I had 1 last chance before everything reset. I took this test at Las Vegas. They made sure that I knew I was being treated differently than everyone else. They asked questions about my previous appeal. They mentioned Glycopyrolate usage, ( an injection over which I made an argument on my earlier test) and things like that. Even though I did all my procedures right, and the dog was in safe plane of anesthesia, they wont let me finish the test. They said that I placed the endo tracheal tube too deep into chest and kicked me out of test without even letting me finish it. I did not even appeal it as it was palpable that they were mad at me and did not want to make it worse.
April 2013: Everything has been reset and I had to retake all 7 tests. I took them at Tufts university. I did extremely well as I have been taking them for so long. But got a feedback that I passed 4 and failed 3. The failed ones were Equine,Surgery and Anesthesia. Even though I asked to write my findings on Equine,they wont let me write anything. Even the manual provides papers for recording the findings.On anesthesia I performed a perfect procedure with all details recorded on the papers provided. Yet I did not appeal as I got some hope that I could finish the other 3 sooner or later.
December 2013: I retook just the equine test at Tufts again. They did not let me write any of my findings. They failed me again and sent a feedback report that said I did not do the procedures that I have done. I lost hope partially but did not appeal. This is a test that I passed already in Oklahoma and Tufts sent me a report that I did not even give the injection in the correct way.
April 2014: I retook the Anesthesia and Surgery tests at Mississippi. The day before the test the University changed my schedule citing the absence of candidates. They sent me an email to this effect the day before I started the test. They switched the anesthesia and surgery timings. I was never tested with other candidates for my anesthesia. I was tested in a room separate from every one else and monitored every second through out the test.I had a different machine with 2 flow meters, no central oxygen line. The point was to make it difficult. Since I prepared for that as well, I figured out the connections and did really well on anesthesia. They used my anesthesia patient as a demonstration for surgery to their 2nd or 3rd year student creating highly stressful environment. They purposefully tried to wake up the animal while under anesthesia increasing its respiratory rate. I handled that stressful situation also and noted in the record how I managed all the monitoring and how I maintained the anesthesia. They still failed me anyways. I could prove I was doing everything according to protocol if I can get access to the anesthesia record.
On the surgery exam, I let the examiner know that I got a pregnant animal. She asked me to perform surgery as usual.It had about 9 golf ball sized fetuses. Even in practice,without any exam stress it takes much longer to control bleeding and do surgery on a pregnant animal. But they did not give me any additional time and failed me on this. I did everything right, exteriorized the reproductive tract and all I needed was 15 more minutes to close the peritoneum and skin. This is a test I already passed at Missouri University but they keep failing me after that.
I completely lost hope with the incidents at Mississippi university in April 2014. It feels like high school students bullying. I am appalled at how they are harassing me even though I keep going to different locations in the hope that I could get a fair chance at evaluation.
Though it became a long letter, please peruse this and let me know how this situation can be handled legally.Thank you for your patience.
Sincerely"
Sounds scary.
What do you guys think? Is it that tough these days?
I think that many of the candidates who have gone trough the ECFVG program (CPE) can easily conclude that this is a fake (unreal) situation. It contains elements that sound so silly and do not fit and others that are really difficult to believe. Somebody for some reason took the time to create it and write it
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its not going to end there.............
Good Luck!!!
