A Look at Veterinary Education PhDs

PhDs focussing on veterinary education or the veterinary profession are growing in number. The LIVE Centre has been the base for two recently completed PhD students:

Dr Carrie Roder

Carrie joined LIVE in 2009 to study for a PhD looking at the hidden curriculum in veterinary education. Her ESRC-funded doctoral research allowed an indepth analysis of the effects of the final clinical year on students developing professionalism and she was able to use mixed methods to understand the implications of the clinical teaching environment on students prioritisation of aspects of the professional role.  She successfully defended her thesis in June 2014 and, after a period of maternity leave, is now disseminating these results through conference presentations and journal publications.

Dr Tierney Kinnison

Tierney successfully defended her thesis entitled: ‘Insights from veterinary professional interactions: implications for interprofessional education (IPE) in the veterinary curricula’ on 26^th February 2016 at the Institute of Education. Her PhD was funded by a Bloomsbury Colleges Studentship. As part of her PhD, Tierney Kinnison investigated the modern day veterinary team. Through a novel combination of mixed methods Tierney was able to map interprofessional interactions in veterinary practices and identify the facilitators and barriers towards interprofessional working and learning. One of the most interesting findings from the study related to systems errors in veterinary teams.  This is the first instance of empirical errors being reported in this way. It is hoped that the results of the PhD may help to guide future interprofessional working and learning in practice, and to inform interprofessional education at the undergraduate level.

Dr Hannah Perrin

Hannah has also joined the LIVE team after completing her PhD on developing a professional identity in veterinary medicine at the University of Kent. 

In collaboration with Dr Sylvain Dernat, who was a PhD student at Lyon, France, Tierney (along with Carrie, Hannah and 18 other current and past PhD students in the area of Veterinary Education/Profession) wrote an article exploring the path to and through veterinary education PhDs. The paper was published in the Veterinary Record (here). The authors of the paper hope that by telling their stories more people will start a career in veterinary education.