Veterinary Clinical Skills Labs: Online Collaboration and Moving Forward

Transcription

1 39 SHORT COMMUNICATION Veterinary Clinical Skills Labs: Online Collaboration and Moving Forward Emma Crowther, 1 Naomi Booth, 2 Nicki Coombes 3 & Sarah Baillie 1 1 School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Bristol, UK 2 School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham, UK 3 Clinical Skills Centre, Royal Veterinary College, University of London, UK Summary Dedicated veterinary Clinical Skills Laboratories (CSLs) are a relatively recent addition to veterinary education and their development has benefitted from visits to medical equivalents. In 2004, the Royal Veterinary College (RVC), London, consulted with Kings College Medical School and various suppliers prior to opening their lab, and similarly in 2009, the School of Veterinary Medicine and Science, University of Nottingham (UoN) established their Clinical Skills Centre after discussion with existing contacts at the UoN Medical School and the RVC. More recently the University of Bristol s School of Veterinary Science set up a CSL and were able to utilise contacts through an online Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation group which has facilitated the rapid sharing of ideas and experiences within an expanding international community. Whilst visits and consultations with more experienced counterparts in other schools will remain invaluable, the online community provides the opportunity for veterinary schools around the world to benefit from the growing network. Keywords: clinical skills, simulation, online community, veterinary Introduction Corresponding author: Emma Crowther, School of Veterinary Sciences, Langford House, Langford, Bristol BS40 5DU, UK [email protected], Phone: + 44(0) Clinical Skills Laboratories (CSLs), are useful in providing a safe, supported and protected environment for the development of undergraduate and post-graduate clinical skills (Lowry 1993, Bradley & Bligh 2005, Saakane et al. 2008). Commonplace in health care education, many have

2 40 Veterinary Clinical Skills Labs Figure 1 George Giles (BVMBVS 2012) performing an ultrasound in the Clinical Skills Lab, University of Nottingham

3 E. Crowther et al. 41 Figure 2 Screenshot of the NOVICE Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation Group Figure 3 The University of Bristol Veterinary Clinical Skills Laboratory

4 42 Veterinary Clinical Skills Labs been developed in response to changes in healthcare policy (du Boulay & Medway 1999) including the publication of Tomorrow s Doctors (General Medical Council 1993, 2011) and curricular initiatives such as an increased emphasis on competency assessment (Saakane et al. 2008). CSLs can help ensure important learning objectives are not left to chance exposures (Bradley & Bligh 2005), accelerate clinical learning (Perry 2009), reduce student anxiety (du Boulay & Medway 1999) and avoid jeopardising patient care (Dent 2001). Although trailing behind their medical counterparts, all veterinary schools in the UK and ROI either have, or are planning, a CSL. NOVICE and the Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation Group Veterinary CSLs have recently been benefitting from an international online group Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation set up as part of an EU project NOVICE ( and funded under the Lifelong Learning Programme. NOVICE (the Network of Veterinary ICt in Education) is a professional veterinary network that aims to support informal lifelong learning and is a collaboration of European veterinary schools (Utrecht, Hannover, Bucharest, Budapest, London and Bristol). Members are verified as being part of the veterinary community at registration, and when accessing the site can use a variety of Web 2.0 tools, create their own profile and create and join groups relating to their interests. Participants post requests for advice or information and leave comments on discussion threads, share files with the group, and create wiki pages to collate information, as well as share their experiences via blogs. The NOVICE online network has over 2,500 members with more than 150 groups including for example Evidence Based Veterinary Medicine, Virtual Patients and Animal Welfare. The Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation group was started in 2010 in NOVICE in order to share and discuss the challenges and solutions for clinical skills training. The group has grown rapidly, clearly tapping into a need, as there are now over 150 members from more than 20 countries. There is frequent use of the discussion boards in which participants post queries and responses regarding the best simulators to use or buy, how best to teach certain skills, or how to approach the task of setting up a CSL from scratch. In keeping with typical development of online groups (Salmon 2003) when the Veterinary Clinical Skills & Simulation group was first set up the moderator (SB) had to prompt people to post but now the size of the group and level of participation means the group remains active itself. Members have uploaded photographs of various models they have made and are happy to share within the group, and wiki pages contain a wealth of information on teaching clinical skills. Additionally, there have been several virtual classrooms, which further enhance discussions. Collated, the various resources make a valuable and constantly growing online information repository. The benefit of this online group and community was highlighted when the School of Veterinary Sciences, University of Bristol began developing their new CSL. Staff posted questions about instruction sheets, equipment and models, and health and safety, and quickly received responses from other veterinary schools around the world. Practical advice regarding the layout of the lab, for example having different sections (dedicated to farm animal, surgical preparation and skills and laboratory practise), using portable consulting tables and suggestions of how to store station equipment, proved very helpful when first opening the lab and made it a versatile, functional space. Additionally, as a result of online networking in the group there have been visits between veterinary schools in the UK, Europe and North America to see CSLs in operation, and to offer advice on the development of new labs. It is hoped that the continued growth and participation in the group will facilitate future communication, collaboration and promotion of best practice in veterinary CSLs around the world. Acknowledgements The authors extend their thanks to all those who have contributed, online and in person, to the development and continued running of the Clinical Skills Labs. References Bradley, P. and Bligh, J. (2005) Clinical skills centres: where are we going? Medical Education 39, Dent, J.A. (2001) Current trends and future implications in the developing role of clinical skills centres. Medical Teacher 23, Du Boulay, C. and Medway, C. (1999) The clinical skills resource: a review of current practice. Medical Education 33,

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