BVM&S Clinical Skills Course
Ongoing Curriculum Review and proposal for future development of
BVM&S Clinical Skills teaching and responsibilities
BVM&S Clinical Skills teaching in Years 0-4 is currently delivered by a wide range of staff and shared
between specific course / module teaching staff and the Professional and Clinical Skills teaching
team. The current focus of discussion of the Clinical Skills Committee is to review the current clinical
skills teaching, mapping it to the curriculum outcomes and RCVS / AVMA requirements, identifying
gaps, overlaps and areas for improvement, and providing a means to improve collaboration
between staff with clinical skills responsibilities and thus the efficiency and scope of the teaching.
The ongoing curriculum review, in parallel with existing wider discussions regarding practical skills
teaching, provides an exciting opportunity to review and discuss how Clinical Skills teaching is
delivered at the R(D)SVS.
Clinical Skills Curriculum Review
As this course has evolved and responsibilities have changed it has become increasingly challenging
for individual staff to know what is being taught and where, thus the primary purpose of the audit is
to address this and provide a reference system which will allow easy collaboration and further
development of Clinical Skills teaching.
In addition, this will provide a good reference point for the RCVS/AVMA visitation (Autumn 2015)
and other Quality Assurance activities.
The initial stage of this audit is underway, with the Clinical Skills Committee working through the
RCVS Clinical Experience Log and Animal Husbandry and Handling Skills List and recording which of
the listed items are taught in which species, and in which classes this teaching is delivered. It is
anticipated that is audit should be completed after the committee’s next meeting on the 26th June
2014. However, this exercise has demonstrated that committee members do not have a
comprehensive view of the skills taught and that it can be difficult to identify the person best placed
to provide the required information.
It is thus proposed that in order to achieve comprehensive overview, members of the Clinical Skills
Committee (and/or other interested colleagues) will be allocated areas of responsibility for
overseeing and developing future clinical skills provision. These areas will be defined independently
by species and year.
Year and Species clinical skills leads will map clinical skills teaching in line with the following:
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RCVS Day 1 Competences
AVMA Clinical Competences
RCVS Clinical experience log
RCVS Animal husbandry and handling skills list
They will liaise with the relevant teaching staff to compile and maintain a database detailing
descriptions of:
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The clinical skills taught
o By year
o By species
Where in the curriculum it is taught (and assessed)?
o Year
o Course
o Module
o Practical
List of those responsible for delivering the teaching
How is the training delivered? e.g.
o Live animal classes
o Simulators or mannikins in Clinical Skills Labs
Is the skill assessed?
o What form does the assessment take?
o Where in the curriculum does the assessment take place?
Example 1 - Principles of suturing
Maps to
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RCVS Day 1 Competences
o C1.12: Correctly apply principles of aseptic surgery
RCVS Clinical Experience Log
o Section 3: First Aid and Emergency Care: Wound care
o Section 11: Surgery: relevant to all
For example, a Quality Assurance visitation team may ask “where do you currently teach and assess
suturing?”.
At present, if they were to look at EEVEC for this information they would find the following:
Teaching Activities:
1) Course – CFC
 Module - Introduction to Surgery
 Practical – Theatre practice and Surgical techniques
o Hand and instrument ties
 Portakabin 5
 Follows Ethicon knot tying manual
 Run by ? (info not available on EEVEC)
o Wound closure
 Portakabin 5
 Following wound closure chapters in Fossum and Suture patterns in UK Vet
 Run by ? (info not available on EEVEC)
2) Course – Professional and Clinical skills 4
 Module – Final Year Prep
 Practical – Practical Skills
o Clinical Skills Lab
o Self-directed revision of hand and instrument ties and suture patterns
o Run by Prof and Clinical skills teaching team
Assessment :
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OSPRE as part of 3rd year CFC professional exam
Example 2 – “Where do you teach your students how to safely restrain a horse to
administer treatment”
Following proposed changes to responsibilities, rather than needing to refer to various documents in
either EEVEC or Learn to find this information, a new ‘Clinical Skills Responsibilities’ reference
document would now direct them to the individual named person with responsibility for equine
clinical skills teaching. This person would then be able to outline which relevant skills are currently
taught (and assessed), and in which year this teaching is delivered.
In addition, following completion of the ongoing Curriculum review exercise, this person would also
be aware that whilst we teach a number of restraint techniques within the AHWFS course, we do not
currently teach our students how to safely place a twitch on a horse. This person would then be able
to liaise with relevant colleagues to discuss whether this is a skill that we should be teaching
students, and if so, would then coordinate the development of an appropriate teaching activity for
this skill (for example, identifying or developing a simple mannikin that would enable students to
develop and practice their manual dexterity and basic technique of applying a nose or ear twitch
safely)
Additional Activities
– Equipment Audit
An audit of the equipment available in the Small Animal Clinical Skills Lab has also been carried out,
with a view to ensuring that resources are both maintained effectively and used optimally.
A list of equipment is available for consultation by all staff members and may be useful for
colleagues who are interested in developing new clinical skills based classes.
- Sign-Up Sessions
Additional sign- up sessions will be developed for students, following discussion with staff and
students to identify where the greatest need is. In addition, some basic self-taught stations with
clear photographic instructions will be developed for students to use in the Clinical Skills Lab as selfdirected learning activities e.g. selection of appropriate blood tubes.
The addition of a number of new sign-up sessions is proposed for 2014/15, in addition to those
already offered by various staff in 4th year and 5th year (e.g. Farm Animal Palpation revision class,
CSL revision sessions). The sign up period would vary depending on the nature of the sessions, as is
currently the case with existing sessions. Exam revision sessions would be scheduled across the
preceding 1-2 weeks before the exam, whilst general topics such as fluid therapy or ear examination
may be offered at different times throughout the year either to coincide with the timing of relevant
lectures or forthcoming EMS placements etc. It is anticipated that the numbers of spaces available in
each sign up sessions would be restricted to ensure optimum staff/student ratios. Examples of signup sessions that have been proposed for 2014/15 include:
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Dog and Cat Handling revision
Jugular blood sampling
Fluid therapy set up
Practical approach to anaesthetic equipment
Examination of the canine ear
Staffing
Existing practical classes will continue to be organised and delivered by course staff teams as before.
Where existing gaps in the clinical skills curriculum are identified, colleagues with allocated
responsibilities (by year or species) will coordinate the development of new teaching activities to
address these gaps. However, bearing in mind the existing demands on various colleagues time,
members of Professional and Clinical Skills teaching team may be able to assist with delivery of these
classes following appropriate training from subject or species specialists (e.g. to run additional
suturing classes). This could help to strengthen collaboration and optimise staff/student ratios for
clinical skills training. In addition, such collaborations could provide an interesting opportunity to
break skills down into component steps (using methods such as Cognitive Task Analysis), which may
also aid the development of further self-study resources for the students.
The scope and efficiency of teaching would be further enhanced by allocated lab support. This is
currently given by Fiona Oliver’s team thus the implication of increasing the amount of teaching on
support will have to be considered. Support in the form of a vet nurse would be very valuable as
they would be able to bring their specific nursing expertise and perspective.
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Actions and Timelines
Clinical / practical skills audit – next meeting, 26th June. Should have initial audit overview
completed at this meeting
Development of sign up sessions – for start 2014/15
Development of self-taught clinical skills stations – for start 2014/15