Activities / Projects

Work-based learning

Veterinary students in the UK are required to spend at least 26 weeks during their five year degree programme engaged in external clinical work placements. These extra-mural studies (EMS) complement the referral cases traditionally seen in the university animal hospitals and clinics. The UK veterinary schools are all required by the profession's statutory governing body (the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons) to ensure that their students gain the necessary work experience before graduation. This is to help ensure the achievement of certain standards of clinical competence (“day one skills”) by the first day of their professional working life. LIVE staff are involved in the following projects which focus on work-based learning:

• Enhancing Clinical Learning in the Workplace (ECLW)
• Evaluation of a Logbook to Support Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace

Enhancing Clinical Learning in the Workplace (ECLW)

Vicki Dale, Matthew Pead and Kirsty Magnier are working with colleagues from the University of Nottingham on a project that seeks to compare methods of clinical training in two veterinary schools, with a view to establishing best practice. Funding for this work was awarded to Dr. Pead through the Higher Education Academy's National Teaching Fellowship Scheme. For more information please visit the ECLW website.

Evaluation of A Logbook to Support Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace

Vicki Dale has been working closely with Stephanie Pierce (now at the University of Cambridge) and with Paul Mahoney (RVC EMS Director), and Richard Hooker (Director of Veterinary Services for the PDSA), on a project funded by the Centre for Excellence in Professional Placement Learning. The project is a specific case study that aims to establish the benefits of an intentional guided learning approach created using a negotiated 'learning contract' (Knowles 1975) between students and employers.

Final year students at the Royal Veterinary College spend two weeks at one of a variety of PetAid Hospitals of the Peoples' Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), a registered charity. PDSA staff designed a logbook to encourage students to be more self-directed in setting their learning objectives and taking responsibility for their own learning; allow the employer to establish a base-line competence from which to structure training activities; enable the employer and student to identify progress made during the placement; align student and employer expectations; and align student learning objectives with measurable learning outcomes.

The project seeks to gain insight into the value of the appraisal system as perceived by students and employers; develop proof of concept so that the system can be rolled out to other veterinary work placements; further our understanding of workplace pedagogy; and disseminate the best practice elements of this study so that they may be applied to work placements in other disciplines.

Further information:

• Association for Veterinary Teachers and Research Work (AVTRW) Conference, 2009, Scarborough – "Evaluation of an Employer-Led Student Appraisal System to Support Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace" (short communication), V.H.M. Dale, S.E. Pierce,
  P. Mahoney, R. Hooker and S.A. May.
  
• Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE) Conference, 2009, Malaga – "Evaluation of a Logbook to Support Self-Directed Learning in the Workplace" (poster), S.E. Pierce, V.H.M. Dale, P. Mahoney, R. Hooker and S.A. May.