Paradigm Shift

The conference was geared to provide a low cost/high quality event and the
team are to be congratulated on a very successful event attracting over 50% more
participants than were expected.

The organisers were very keen to include more GP Vets and  I think this is
something that we should certainly encourage through BEVME. The idea is that the
event rotates around each of the Vet Schools and, next year, it to be held in
Edinburgh which will be a great opportunity to see their new facilities.

I shall feedback some ideas and thoughts as they occur to me but the two
big messages that came over to me were:

1. Sir Peter Rubin, head of the GMC and involved in the development of the
Nottingham Vet School, gave the second plenary address. Although he was suitably
non-judgemental he discussed the extreme conservatism of the medical and the
veterinary profession when it came to change but how, although it was happening
now in the medical profession, the veterinary profession was lagging behind with
curricula reministent of those seen in medical schools in the 1960′s. This
struck a chord with my doctorate finding that adult learning principles that
developed in the 1970′s & 1980′s still remain largely absent from veterinary
CPD.

A case, perhaps, for BEVME to inform and support a more critical approach
by GP Vets to the products of our universities and CPD providers. After all, we
are the end users, bear significant costs (EMS, CPD etc) and should, perhaps,
take more responsibility for the fitness for purpose of what we consume.

2. Having heard about the conservatism and inertia within the educational
machine, I then spent two days in the company of the most pleasant, dedicated
and innovative educators you could ever imagine. This got me to thinking about
just where the barriers are and how , within BEVME, could have an
influence.

Food for thought !

I attended the Higher Education Academy MEDEV workshop on Tuesday. Lots of interesting material but also a salient reminder about how little we really know about teaching some of the metacognitive skills associated with clinical work.

Definitely a lot of good work going on, huge potential but a lot of work still to do.

In February this year we were consulted by the RCVS with regard to concerns relating to the training of Veterinary Nurse Clinical Coaches.

RCVS have been working hard to address the issue and, to gather evidence, BEVME conducted surveys of Clinical Coaches (101 respondants) and Clinical Coach Trainers (18 respondants).

The results have been made available to RCVS and are available to the BEVME community.

If you are not a member of BEVME and would like a copy of  the results, you can join BEVME at: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BEVME

A couple of weeks ago I gave a presentation to the SPVS Conference that covered both Clinical Coaching and  Systems based change.

Clinical Coaching is in the spotlight at the moment following the RCVS decision to make it a requirement within the Veterinary Nurse training system system. Whilst the principle is sound, there is concern about the training currently available.

Systems based change is hugely important to businesses in the 21st Century and whilst the veterinary profession have a huge potential advantage in this field, it is likely that few will exploit it.

The slides from the presentation are freely available on the BEVME Yahoo Site. If you are not already on the database, you can sign up at http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/BEVME

Welcome to the Best Evidence Veterinary Medical Education (BEVME) Blog !

Hear you will find information about what’s happening within the BEVME community and more generally within veterinary education.

A BEVME page will be available on the new website (July 2011) as will a range of educational resources, please do visit us then.