Brief Report from VetEd2016 – Glasgow

VetEd2016 was a huge success with 140 delegates (from 16 different countries) attending a mix of three plenary lectures, 16 workshops and three poster session (totalling 82 posters!). As indicated in our previous news item, the LIVE team alongside their RVC colleagues disseminated their work through a total of five poster presentations and three workshops. The team also made the most of the networking opportunities and gained valuable insight from the other presenters. The three plenary speakers were especially noteworthy for various reasons. Dr Gregory Wolfus presented “Highlighting the mutual benefits of a diverse learning environment while serving a community in need; Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic” whereby veterinary students and young people in Technical College worked together to provide services for pet owners within ‘care deserts’ – areas where they cannot gain access to affordable pet care. Eleanor Ferguson presented “Understanding Fitness to Practice” and explored how the RCVS could work within a Fitness to Practice framework rather than disciplinary framework, utilising recent examples of Disciplinary Hearings. Finally, Professor Fiona Patterson discussed “Selecting for non-academic attributes: research, theory and practice” and expanded our understanding of different selection methods including situational judgement tests, which aim to measure skills complementary to academic ability focussed tests, including empathy, integrity and teamwork. If you’d like to relive VetEd2016, check out #veted2016. We believe that recordings of the posters sessions and plenaries will be made available via https://vetedsymposium.org/. It’s now time to see how we can put our new ideas into practice, and to start preparing for VetEd2017 in Liverpool on 5-7^th July!