Continuing Professional Development for Veterinarians Working in Africa
Daborn CJ, International Veterinary Consultant. tvs@habari.co.tz
Ojigo DO, Epidemiologist Department Veterinary Services, Kenya davidhezron@yahoo.com
Abstract
Livestock production in Africa makes a vital contribution to livelihoods, food security,
income generation and gross national product. With its enormous forage production potential
and current livestock population of more than 191 million cattle, 340 million sheep and goats
and 700 million poultry, Africa has a largely under-recognised and grossly under-exploited
potential to sustainably supply the rising global demand for livestock products. Livestock
service delivery personnel, lead by veterinarians, can play a major role in meeting this
demand for increased livestock production by acquiring updated relevant knowledge and
extending that knowledge to livestock producers in the form of skilled practice and informed
technical advice and to policy makers by way of effective advocacy. To achieve these outputs
our current and future generations of veterinarians working in Africa need to update their
“knowledge, skills and personnel qualities” by undertaking an appropriate form of
Continuing Professional Development [CPD]. This need has been recognised by the Kenya
Veterinary Board that requires veterinarians registered to practise in Kenya to undergo formal
CPD programmes / activities measured by a points system. Each KVB registered veterinarian
must accumulate at least 60 CPD points over three years with a minimum of 15 points per
year. This paper describes an approach developed by the Department of Veterinary Services
Kenya, with DFID funding, that can assist veterinarians meet KVB requirements by
providing accessible, affordable and relevant CPD content by way of e-learning materials.
Introduction
Livestock production makes a vital contribution to livelihoods, food security, income
generation and gross national product. The livestock sector currently has the opportunity of
supplying the rising global demand for livestock products. Realising this opportunity is
challenged by competition for livestock feed constituents from human food requirements and
bio-fuel production. Increased support for extensive livestock production systems and greater
use of crop by-products and residues may prove a practical response to this challenge. Many
factors, in addition to feeding systems, affect the quality and quantity of livestock and
livestock product in a given country. Understanding and addressing important production
constraints, including the policy environment, is a key approach to maintaining and
enhancing livestock productivity.
The opportunity to meet rising global demand for livestock products is of particular
importance for Africa, with its enormous forage production potential and current livestock
population of more than 191 million cattle, 340 million sheep and goats and 700 million
poultry. It is generally accepted that livestock production in Africa could, with appropriate
interventions, be considerably increased and made more efficient through improved animal
health and nutrition. Livestock service delivery professionals, inclusive of veterinarians, can
play a major role in realizing increased livestock production by acquiring updated relevant
knowledge and extending that knowledge in the form of skilled practice and informed
technical advice. The challenge, facing livestock service providing practitioners in Africa, is
where and how to acquire updated and relevant knowledge.
As members of the livestock service community Veterinarians play a doubly important role
in that they have both livestock production skills whilst being uniquely equipped to
understand and develop strategies for protecting the industry from livestock diseases of
considerable economic and human health importance. Livestock production initiatives need
to go hand in hand with enhanced veterinary services. Providing our current and future
generations of veterinarians working in Africa with ongoing access to an appropriate form of
Continuing Professional Development [CPD] can ensure that their knowledge and skills
make a significant contribution to the strengthening of veterinary services. This paper
discusses the ways and means in which this ideal can be realised.
Background
Access and engagement with CPD materials can be achieved through a variety of approaches
inclusive of new editions of text books, journals, “hard” and “soft” copy information sheets /
continuing education course packs, attendance at formalised updating/specialist courses and
distance learning tutorials available as CD ROMS/Video or via the internet. The latter
approach has been the subject of considerable pioneering development in recent years and an
increasing amount of online materials is becoming available. This comes at a time when the
installation of fibre optic cables is bringing down cost of downloading information from the
internet whilst increasing the speed of transmission and size of file that can be received.
In recognition of the opportunity presented by improving internet speeds, an initiative to form
an African Universities Veterinary E-learning Consortium (AUVEC), connecting institutions
in Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe, Malawi and Sudan
was launched [J Fitzpatrick 2006]. The initiative was designed to facilitate a coordinated
inter-African approach to exploit the academic strengths of the different universities and
research institutes in the collaborative production of e-learning materials. At a meeting held
3–5 October 2005 in Naivasha, Kenya (DFID 2006), AUVEC gave broad support to the
concept of enhancing access to on-line higher educational and CPD materials for
Veterinarians working in Africa and for the pursuit of strategies in support of that objective.
This initiative is currently being complimented by on-line e-learning programmes produced
by various institutions including the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine [CTVM],
Edinburgh University, Royal Veterinary College [RVC], London University, Institute for
Tropical Medicine [ITM], Antwerp, Belgium and the Department for Veterinary Tropical
Diseases [DVTD], Onderstepoort, University of Pretoria.
Table 1 details the sites that
provide materials designed for CPD self study.
Table 1. On-line Veterinary CPD providers
Provider
http://www.vet-cpd.co.uk/
http://cpd.rvc.ac.uk/
http://ceweb01.eatup.co.za/
http://massey.ac.nz.mvm
http://www.vetacademy.co.uk/
http://www.saunderssolutions4vets.com/
http://www.bva.co.uk/vetsTv/home.aspx
http://ceweb01.eatup.co.za/
http://www.vetcpdonline.co.uk/free_cpd.html
http://www.keysteps.net/home/index.php
http://www.keyskill.com/140.asp#
http://vetgrad.co.uk/cpd/free_online_cpd.html
http://www.cpd-solutions.com/
http://thewebinarvet.com/
http://www.vetdent.eu/cpd/cpd.html
http://www.vetacademy.co.uk/free-trial/
http://www.dechra.co.uk/
http://www.vetlearn.com/
Comments
Vet CPD from the Royal (Dick) Vet School, UK
Vet CPD from the Royal Vet College [RVC] London
Short Courses available at DVTD Onderstepoort
CPD as part of the MVM programme
A CPD broker
CPD from Elsevier
Bitch Spay video-£30.00 plus member resources
Short Courses available at DVTD Onderstepoort
Provides some free content & links to pay CPD
7 day free trial offered & links to pay CPD
Free clinical topic lectures
Provides links to free on-line CPD & to pay CPD
Some free CPD provided & links to pay CPD
Offers 4 free webinairs
Veterinary Dentistry tutorials
3 Elsevier trial modules offered & links to pay CPD
2 CPD modules for registered users
A lot of free CPD & links to pay CPD [USA]
When designing a programme that incorporates the use of on-line tutorial materials as CPD
for Veterinarians working in Africa, the problem of accessing a good and affordable internet
facility with consistent electricity supply needs to be taken into account. Although faster
internet connections and more reliable supplies of electricity are becoming more widely
available, the fact remains that the majority of veterinary colleagues in Africa continue to
suffer poor connectivity and face considerable challenges in reliably accessing on-line
educational materials. On this basis any programme incorporating the sourcing and
dissemination of on-line CPD materials must make provision for the material to be
transferred offline to CD/DVD of flash media in order to facilitate access by colleagues who
lack the benefit of a good internet connection.
Further challenges are that a major proportion of the on-line e-learning material is only
accessible at cost, often at a level too prohibitively expensive for most veterinary colleagues
to afford and the content of such material is primarily targeted at veterinary practice in
temperate climes with many of the diseases of animals in the tropics poorly represented.
Although there is a body of Veterinary Information that is freely available [Table 2], few
colleagues are aware of the existence these resources or are habituated to the practice of
“surfing” or “googling” in order to discover them
Table 2. Veterinary Information Services
http://en.wikivet.net/Veterinary_Education_Online
http://www.ivis.org/home.asp
http://hadesuesening.blogspot.com/
http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp
http://www.vetcontact.com/en/index.html
http://www.vetagenda.com/
http://www.martindalecenter.com/Vet.html
https://www.veterinarycommunication.org/homepage.php
http://www.fda.gov/cvm/Green_Book/elecgbook.html
http://www.vet.cornell.edu/consultant/consult.asp
http://www.vin.com
http://www.navc.com/contact/
http://www.vetstream.com/
http://www.vetlearn.com/
http://www.mims.com/index.aspx
http://www.apvma.gov.au/use_safely/material_safety.php
A superlative learning source
International Veterinary Information Service
Multiple links to different information sources
Comprehensive reference for animal care information.
Vet Med Information Service–News, Reports, Products
Veterinary congresses, conferences and courses
Martindale’s Virtual Veterinary Information Centre
The Institute for Healthcare Communication (Bayer)
Animal Medicines approved by the FDA
A Diagnostic Support System for Veterinary Medicine
Veterinary Information Network
NAVC provides veterinary healthcare CE [USA]
Clinical content for a fee
Access to clinical journals for vets and vet technicians
MIMS– Human Prescription drug compendium
Farm chemical Safety Data Sheets [Australia]
Materials and Methods
The Department of Veterinary Services [DVS], Kenya, with financial assistance from DFID,
piloted the establishment of a “Continuing Professional Development [CPD] E-Learning
Unit”, with authorisation by the Kenya Veterinary Board [KVB] “to produce and disseminate
e-learning CPD materials to veterinarians and to jointly award CPD points on the basis of a
graded uptake assessment”. The DVS CPD E-Learning Unit was located at Kabete in the
offices of the Veterinary Information Management System [VIMS].
The CPD unit pre-tested, with the Kenya Veterinary Board [KVB] CPD Committee, an elearning approach to the dissemination of CPD materials using a tutorial “Selected Diseases
of Cattle”. This CD was one of some 30 tutorial CDs/DVDs, provided by the Department for
Tropical Veterinary Diseases [DVTD] Onderstepoort, an OIE Collaborating Centre for
Training in Integrated Livestock and Wildlife Health and Management. The trial CPD
material contained some 20 self accessible tutorials on Infectious Diseases of Cattle inclusive
of conditions such as CBPP, FMD and brucellosis.
A technique to reproduce the tutorial from the master CD was developed and copies of the
CD, with printed label and cover, were made at a materials cost price of approximately
US$0.50 per CD. The tutorials are menu driven covering descriptions of the aetiology;
epidemiology; socio-economics; pathogenesis; clinical signs; pathology; diagnosis;
differential diagnosis; and control of selected diseases. Material is presented as text and
graphics including short video clips. Through menu selection it is possible to move both
forwards and backwards though the course material, spending as much time as desired on any
one section.
The unit developed a mechanism to assess the uptake of the CPD tutorial, based on the
answers given in response to a set of subject specific questions. The CPD unit trialled the elearning approach in Isiolo, one of the two pilot areas for LISRIM activities. The Faculty of
Veterinary Medicine agreed to provide subject matter specialists to provide an informed and
graded assessment determining the number of CPD points to be awarded.
Results
An assessment of the e-learning approach was undertaken by requesting colleagues on the
KVB CPD Committee and in Isiolo, to load the CPD tutorial material onto their computers
from the provided CD, undertake the tutorials, complete the subject specific question sheets
and then provide their view on the material by responding to a questionnaire and grading the
answers given. The results of this assessment are given in figure 1 below
6
DFID E-Learning CPD Trial points out of 5
5
4
3
2
1
CPD Committee
0
Isiolo
Figure 1. Assessment of the DFID CPD E-Learning Trial
Discussion
The lack of access to quality CPD, relevant to the African veterinary context, is a common
problem faced by veterinary colleagues in the continent. Currently available on-line CPD
materials, marketed by recognised CPD providers, is often too expensive, more suited to
temperate climate veterinary practice and dependent on reliable and fast internet connections.
Although a body of e-learning CPD material exists offline on CD or DVD media, and other
material could be copied to such media, there is only currently a limited amount of such
material available and accessible for use by veterinary colleagues. There is a lack of clarity
concerning copyright/licensing for the reproduction of such materials, though Open Learning,
as advocated by OERAfrica, provides a way forward in this context [www.oerafrica.org].
Few, if any of the Institutions in Africa are actively engaged in the production of CPD
materials with FVM’s tending to be more focused on curriculum development for degree
courses. An FAO supported initiative to produce VPH CPD material by collaboration
between the FVM’s of Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania could provide valuable lessons in this
respect. There is limited information available concerning individual country status/initiatives
for CPD but indicators suggest that few if any have developed, through their respective
VSB’s, a governance structure for CPD, defining the standards to be met and guidelines for
achieving those standards. Where such standards exist there is limited capacity to enforce
them and little incentive, on the part of veterinary colleagues, to comply. Best practice
examples may exist but they have not, as yet, been documented. There is little harmonisation
of CPD practice between countries, or policy in place for Regional Authorities to use to drive
such harmonisation. Most countries have no mechanism to apply external Quality Control
[QC], in line with OIE standards, for CPD material. There is at present no Institution at
global, continental or regional level that is actively championing the cause of making quality
CPD accessible to veterinary colleagues in Africa.
A champion is needed for the purpose of hosting a continent wide CPD programme,
implemented by individual countries with coordination and harmonisation by their respective
Regional Economic Communities. Such a champion should promote access to an effective
and affordable CPD programme providing a substantive tool for building HR capacity in
targeted competencies as well as addressing veterinary colleagues’ needs for updated skills
and knowledge for better remuneration and career advancement. Considerable subject matter
expertise exists in Africa, often concentrated at FVM and Research facilities, competent to
author and mentor subject specific CPD activity. The introduction of E-Learning CPD
approaches can significantly improve the range and accessibility of topics for CPD study
whilst the use of open learning materials can markedly reduce costs.
Existing CPD
guidelines, such as those produced by the RCVS, UK, can provide an “off the shelf”
governance solution and the OIE Collaborating Centre for Training, DVTD, Onderstepoort a
readymade quality assurance centre. There is an opportunity to strengthen the network of
Deans and Heads of Veterinary Statutory Bodies and use the forum as an advocacy and
quality support group for the development of CPD modules. Modules could be divided into
minimum competencies including: Clinical sciences, Disease surveillance, Recognition,
Epidemiology, Diagnosis, Veterinary Public Health including Food Safety, Veterinary
legislation, Animal Welfare, ICT, Management and leadership and policy and advocacy
competencies including: Livestock policy formulation and analysis, Animal health economic,
Advocacy for increased investment in livestock, Public private partnership [Dr Baboucarr
Pers. Coms]
Conclusion
The DFID E-Learning trial has demonstrated that there is a solution to the provision of
accessible and affordable CPD material and that such an approach can be quality controlled
to meet CPD points awarding criteria. Before the e-learning approach can be up-scaled,
issues in terms of quality control, distribution, uptake assessment, CPD points awarded and
cost recovery need to be discussed and agreed as part of a collaborative working agreement
and action plan. Such an agreement should be inclusive of the Veterinary Statutory Body,
Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Veterinary Association, State Veterinary Service and any
other relevant organisation / institution defining roles, responsibilities and core functions. A
critical need is to establish an e-learning CPD Unit, mandated to administer the reproduction,
dissemination and management of the e-learning material as an essential and vital part of a
nationally agreed CPD programme
References.
DFID 2006. AHP_Annual_Report_2005-06.
FITZPATRICK, J. 2006. Online training for vets in Africa. Veterinary Record 2006; 159:3
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