Future-focus for the RCVS at BSAVA Congress

We are hosting a suite of future-focused presentations at the British Small Animal Veterinary Association (BSAVA) Congress next month. These presentations will cover topics from the future of veterinary education and veterinary nursing, to telemedicine, leadership and mental wellbeing within the profession.

We will be hosting presentations on day one of the BSAVA Congress, which runs from Thursday 4 through to Sunday 7 April 2019 in Birmingham. 

The day will begin at 08.30 with a split-session presentation from Professor Stephen May, our Senior Vice-President, and Amanda Boag, our President.

Professor Stephen May will present a talk entitled ‘Graduate Outcomes review – looking to the future’, which will cover the future of the veterinary education Graduate Outcomes consultation we launched last year. The consultation, which asked for the views of all members of the veterinary team on the future of veterinary education, grew out of the joint RCVS and British Veterinary Association (BVA) Vet Futures research project, which found that there is often a mismatch between the expectations of graduates and the reality of veterinary practice.

Amanda Boag (pictured right) will then present a talk entitled ‘Leadership for all with the Edward Jenner Leadership Programme’ in the second half of this split-session.

Also inspired by Vet Futures and launched at last year’s BSAVA Congress, the RCVS Leadership Programme aims to support the College’s strategic ambition to become an organisation with leadership at its heart. On 13 November 2018, as part of this initiative, we launched the Edward Jenner Veterinary Leadership Programme, a free-to-access Massive Open Online Course for veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses.

“The programme is designed for all veterinary professionals and addresses the importance of leadership in the veterinary setting. Over 3,000 veterinary professionals have already engaged with the course and feedback has been exceptional, with 100% of learners in the last run saying they “would recommend the course to a colleague” and 95% saying they “felt the programme had equipped them to be more effective leader”, says Amanda.

The programme comprises two online courses with a final assessment and is supported by an innovative audio drama, ‘Glenvern’, which faithfully portrays the leadership challenges vets encounter in daily practice. All the learning materials are free to access, although there is a small charge for those wishing to undertake the final assessment.

This session will then be followed by three presentations from our Mind Matters Initiative (MMI), launched in 2015, which aims to improve the mental health and wellbeing of those in the veterinary team.

The first of the MMI presentations, entitled ‘Disclosure’ and scheduled to run from 09.25 to 10.10, will be presented by Darren Humphrey, Lead Clinician at March on Stress, a psychological health consultancy charity that delivers Vetlife’s Health Support Programme. Darren will focus on the issues around ‘disclosing’ to a line manager that you are suffering from a mental health condition, along with addressing wider issues associated with mental health such as stigma and discrimination.

The remaining two MMI sessions will focus on &Me Live, with Part 1 running from 11.05 to 11.50 and Part 2 running from 12.00 to 12.45.

&Me Live is a joint anti-stigma initiative, run in partnership with the Doctors’ Support Network, that aims to encourage senior people within healthcare professions to come forward with their personal mental health stories, to demonstrate that mental health issues do not exclude people from achieving leading roles in healthcare.

Becky Hirst, palliative medicine consultant, Allisdhair McNaull, veterinary surgeon, and Steve Carter veterinary surgeon, will each give a short talk on their experience with mental health. This will be followed by a Q&A session, chaired by Lizzie Lockett, our Chief Executive and MMI Director.

The last stream of sessions for the day will focus on VN Futures, a joint RCVS and British Veterinary Nursing Association (BVNA) initiative formed at the beginning of the 2016 in parallel with the Vet Futures project, to help the veterinary nursing profession prepare for its future.

Laura Black RVN, will begin these sessions with a talk entitled ‘A VN’s guide to wellbeing’, running from 14.05 to 14.50. Black’s presentation will focus on what veterinary nurses can do to improve not only their wellbeing, but also that of their colleagues.

Liz Cox (pictured right), Senior Vice-Chair for Veterinary Nurses Council and RCVS Council Member, will present the second VN Futures presentation, entitled ‘VN’s guide to Practice Standards Scheme’, which will run from 15.00 to 15.45.

The Practice Standards Scheme, launched in 2005, is a voluntary initiative to accredit veterinary practices in the UK, aiming to promote and maintain the highest standards of veterinary care.

“More than half of veterinary practices in the UK are now accredited under the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme, with numbers continually increasing”, says Liz.

“This presentation will explain the scheme and associated awards, look at commonly asked questions, and, most importantly, examine how the scheme supports practice and quality of care.”

The third VN Futures talk, entitled ‘A VN’s guide to Schedule 3 and Delegation’, will be presented by Julie Dugmore, our Director of Veterinary Nursing, from 15.50 to 16.35.

This session will examine Schedule 3 and its role in the profession today, particularly given the 2015 granting of the RCVS Royal Charter in which veterinary nurses became recognised as professionals in their own right.

“During the evidence-gathering sessions for the VN Futures project there was found to be a great appetite to increase the number of tasks that VNs are allowed to undertake”, says Julie.

“One of the recommendations of the VN Futures Report was to ‘clarify and bolster the VN role via a reformed Schedule 3’ which has led to the RCVS undertaking a review of Schedule 3.”

Susan Howarth, Chair of the VN Education Committee and VN Council member, will present the final VN Futures presentation, entitled ‘A VN’s guide to Advanced Practitioner Status’, from 16.40 to 17.25.

Susan will focus on the development of our post-registration framework for RVNs, which has been devised to allow access to advanced veterinary nursing qualifications from all registerable veterinary nurse qualifications.

“It is the intention that Higher Education Institutions and Awarding Organisations will use this framework to develop qualifications that offer specialist areas of interest, alongside academic progression. These RCVS accredited qualifications will allow candidates to gain an RCVS Certificate in Advanced Veterinary Nursing (RCVS Cert AVN) award”, says Susan.

Meanwhile, in Hall 7 on Friday, 5 April at 08.30, our Director of Communications Ian Holloway will join a panel discussion entitled ‘Effective consultation: how to make clients your best marketing tool’ and, later that day at 16.50, Chair of our Standards Committee Kate Richards will speak in the Big Issues debate entitled ‘Telemedicine: patient care in the digital world’.

Throughout Congress, RCVS Council members and staff will be on stand number J14 where delegates can find out about a range of RCVS activities and be in with a chance of winning a £100 National Book Token by playing a ‘Full House!’ game involving multiple choice questions on a variety of RCVS projects and activities.

For the full agenda for BSAVA Congress visit www.bsavacongress.com.