VetEd 2023

There are few more pressing issues facing society at this time than the sustainability of our actions. As such, we have embedded sustainability into our conference planning at every stage. 

 

Delegate bags

In keeping with our aim to be as sustainable as possible with this year’s conference we will not be providing physical delegate bags. Whilst reusable cups and mugs will be available for refreshments throughout the conference, we would request that everyone brings their own travel mugs and water bottles for use during the conference. Reusable and sustainable University of Edinburgh products will be available for purchase if you forget. We would also ask, for those of you who like to make paper notes, that you bring a pad and pen with you, although small quantities will be available if requested.

To recognise the cost saving to the conference of not providing a delegate ‘swag’ bag we will ask delegates to vote to support relevant charities during the conference. VetEd2023 will donate pro rata amounts to the chosen charities. Thank you in advance for your understanding and support.

Date:  5 July

Location: Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, Easter Bush Campus

Please note that the Main Conference and Workshops will take place a different locations.

See map

Preconference Workshop Options will include sessions such as:

• Residents as educators
• RECOVER Initiative training- standardising CPR training in veterinary education  
• Supporting EMS Development
• Energising Morning Yoga
• Exotic animals in the veterinary curriculum
• The Biodiversity Challenge on Veterinary Campuses
• Campus Tours
• Immersive Simulation in Veterinary Education  
• Edinburgh City VetEd History Walk

We are proud to be sponsored by the following organisations:

• CVS Knowledgehub
• Vetstream
• IDEXX
• The Webinar Vet
• Vets in Mind
• The Canmore Trust

To learn about sponsoring us, visit the sponsorship page.

Accommodation at the main conference venue can be booked during the registration process at Pollock Estate, 18 Holyrood Park Road Edinburgh EH16 5AY

Located at the foot of the royal Holyrood Park and Arthur’s Seat and a short walk to all the main tourist attractions, the Pollock Halls campus offers bed and breakfast accommodation in single occupancy (£77.25 per night) or shared twin rooms (£100 per night).

Rooms have a Freeview TV, telephone, free wireless internet access, tea/coffee-making facilities and laundry facilities.  All rooms are serviced daily and all linen and towels are provided. An extensive breakfast is offered in the self-service restaurant at John McIntyre Conference Centre.

Thursday 6 July

09:15-10:15

 

Educating for capability

Many educators and regulators in the healthcare professions utilise competency-based medical education (CMBE) to establish graduating standards, but it it important to differentiate between competence and capability.

Over the last decade significant changes have emerged from CMBE with greater emphasis on outcomes, progression of abilities with measurement of performance and less focus on time-based training.  There is currently a paradigm shift from defining graduate outcomes as discrete entities in terms of knowledge, skills and attitudes to integrated activities which more closely resemble the scope of practice and the responsibilities of healthcare professionals.

We need to prepare our graduates with the capability to integrate multiple skills, adapt to new situations, work effectively in inter-professional teams, know their own limitations and know when to seek extra support or advice.

But how do we train and assess for capability?

This talk will explore how simulation, technology assisted learning, inter-professional education and entrustable professional activities can help to educate of capability and prepare graduate to tackle complex real world challenges in an ever-changing healthcare environment.

Professor Tom Gale BMedSci, BMBS, FRCA, PFHEA, MClinEd

Thursday 6 July

14:00-15:00

 

Veterinary Education: Moving forward, looking back, minding the gap!

Future historians of British veterinary medicine might look back at the first quarter of the 21^st century and consider it an interesting time, as veterinary education changed from a pattern largely modelled on mid-20^th century medical education to … something else!

In this, the Bicentenary year of the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, we will take an historical tour through British veterinary education, pausing at some sites of special scientific interest.

New vet schools are not new.

It is not widely known that the Dick is only one of four veterinary colleges/faculties to have been located in Edinburgh, and that at three points in time two vet schools were operating simultaneously in the city.

How did an argument lead to the formation of Glasgow Vet School, and why did Liverpool start off in Edinburgh?

Why does new information about Joseph Lister’s horse pose problems for current understandings of the reception of germ theory in British veterinary education?

Why did mid-20^th century attempts to socially engineer a sustainable British profession fail, and what lessons can we learn from this to help in the current climate, where sustainability in its widest sense has become an imperative?

Lots of questions, some suggested answers - but historical argument, like science, is always provisional and conditional.

Dr Andrew Gardiner

Friday 7 July

09:00-10:30

*This session is sponsored by Vetlife, Vets in Mind and the Canmore Trust.*

 

Suicide prevention in veterinary education

Suicide prevention is a vital focus for the veterinary professions. This session brings together diverse perspectives, including lived experience, clinical, policy, psychological, and occupational expertise. The session is applied in focus, considering what veterinary educators can do to help.

 

Dr Neil Hudson 

MA VetMB PhD DEIM DipVetClinStud PFHEA FRCVS MP

'Mental Health Support and Suicide Prevention: The View from Parliament'

Dr Neil Hudson MP is a veterinary surgeon, academic and politician who has worked in mixed practice in the UK and Australia. Neil completed a Mixed Practice Internship at the University of Sydney, a  PhD in Grass Sickness and Equine Gastroenterology and a Residency in Equine Internal Medicine at the University of Edinburgh. He holds the RCVS Diploma in Equine Internal Medicine (DEIM), spent periods as Lecturer in Equine Medicine, Director of Admissions and Senior Veterinary Clinical Lecturer at the Dick Vet. Neil is a Fellow of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Neil established with colleagues at the Dick Vet the Undergraduate Certificate in Veterinary Medical Education. In 2019 Neil was elected as Member of Parliament for Penrith and The Border. He sits on the Commons EFRA Select Committee, where he has triggered Parliamentary Inquiries on Rural Mental Health, Movement of Animals Across Borders, Pet Welfare and Abuse, and Marine Mammals.  Neil is Vice-Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Groups for Animal Welfare and for the Horse. In 2021 Neil was nominated as one of the  British Equine Veterinary Association BEVA 60 Faces Initiative. In 2021/22 Neil was a member of the British Horseracing Authority Steering Group on the use of the whip in horse racing. Neil’s research has included Equine Gastroenterology, Veterinary Education, Peer Assisted Learning, Equine Welfare, Veterinary Admissions, Student Wellbeing. Neil is the only vet in the House of Commons.

 

Professor John Gibson

John Gibson is Emeritus Professor of Oral Medicine in the University of Aberdeen, Chief Executive Officer of The Canmore Trust (SC051511) and a member of the Lived Experience Panel of the Scottish Government’s National Suicide Prevention Leadership Group. On 20th October 2019, John’s youngest child, Cameron, a veterinary surgeon, died by suicide at 24-years-old and his world changed forever.  John now works to prevent suicide, and offer support to individuals, families and communities affected by suicide.

 

Dr Alex Thomson

MBBS MA FRCPsych

'Safety planning'

Dr Alex Thomson is a consultant liaison psychiatrist and Vice Chair of the Royal College of Psychiatrists (RCPsych) Faculty of Liaison Psychiatry. He has been awarded RCPsych Psychiatric Educator of the Year 2020 in recognition of his achievements in postgraduate clinical education. He has published and presented on various topics related to mental health, suicide prevention, self-harm and adult protection. Dr Thomson has contributed to various clinical guidelines and expert advisory groups, and is currently a member of the RCPsych Psychiatric Liaison Accreditation Network Advisory Group and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence Guidelines Committee on Self-harm.

 

Dr Mark Hoelterhoff

'Looking at the other side of mental illness among professionals, the role of hope'

My clinical, teaching and research focus is on positive psychology.  I have been in the field of promoting positive mental wellbeing for over 25 years. As a counselling psychologist, I’ve provided psychoeducation and positive psychotherapy to individuals, couples and families in private practise along with third-sector organisations worldwide. In addition to healthcare settings, I worked at several higher education institutions before coming to the University of Edinburgh.

 

Dr Rosie Allister

BSc (Hons) BVSc MSc PhD MRCVS

'Suicide prevention in veterinary settings: what we can do to help'

Dr Rosie Allister has received the British Veterinary Association Chiron Award and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons Impact Award for work on veterinary mental health. Rosie manages Vetlife Helpline, a 24 hour support service for everyone in the UK veterinary community. Her research, based at the University of Edinburgh, looks at veterinary suicide prevention, occupational mental health, and wellbeing at work. She has written and spoken extensively about veterinary mental health in the UK and internationally. She has volunteered with Samaritans for 19 years and advises a number of national organisations, including Scottish Government, on suicide prevention and self harm.

 

If you need support, the Vetlife Helpline provides confidential support to the veterinary community 24 hours a day, every day: contact 0303 040 2551 or email via www.vetlife.org.uk

Friday 7 July

14:00-15:30

 

Sustainability Panel Session

Humanity is facing a multitude of complex and urgent sustainability issues including climate change, biodiversity depletion, public health pandemics, social inequity and animal welfare concerns.

With a unique One Health perspective at the human-animal-environment interface, veterinary professionals make an important contribution to the sustainability agenda, both within veterinary operations, and in the sectors we influence through the animals under our care. There is a substantial opportunity to further enhance these contributions, and we can begin by learning from those that are paving the way to more sustainable models of education and healthcare.

This session will explore the existing and potential roles veterinary professionals can play in supporting sustainable solutions in their work and studies. The panel of speakers will discuss sustainability and environmental management in veterinary practices, considering how the veterinary profession can be part of the solution to the climate crisis. The panel will reflect on the workforce crisis currently experienced by the NHS, and how the existing medical workforce can be supported in anticipation of future healthcare demands.

Veterinary student and new graduate perspectives on sustainability will be explored, before an overview of the curriculum review of sustainability conducted by the University of Surrey and how this links to Day 1 Competencies and the principles of education for sustainable development. The plenary will finish with a look at sustainable and regenerative solutions for the wider veterinary industry, from the perspective of an online continuing education provider.

 

Ellie West 

'Sustainability in veterinary practice'

Ellie graduated from Cambridge University in 2003 and worked first as an intern in a private referral practice and then as a general practitioner in a first opinion clinic. She has been an anaesthetist since 2006; first as an intern at University College Dublin, Ireland, then as a Clinician-Teacher at the University of Liverpool and as a clinical anaesthetist at Davies since 2013. Ellie passed her ECVAA Diploma in 2017, and became a Practitioner with the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment in 2022. Ellie’s particular interests are in environmental sustainability within veterinary medicine. Ellie is the Environmental Sustainability Lead for the Linnaeus group, and an active member of the Davies Green Group.

 

Professor Tom Gale 

BMedSci, BMBS, FRCA, PFHEA, MClinEd 

'Sustainability of the workforce: Supporting under-performing doctors'

Professor Gale is a Professor of Medical Education and Director of Assessment at the Faculty of Health, University of Plymouth, and Consultant Anaesthetist at Plymouth University Hospitals NHS Trust. Tom leads the Collaboration for the Advancement of Medical Education Research and Assessment (CAMERA) research group, which undertakes research to improve capability and sustainability in the healthcare professions. His major interest areas are in the assessment of capability, recruitment and selection, preparedness for practice, simulation based education and retention of the medical workforce. He is currently involved with externally funded research investigating: stress and well-being in anaesthetic trainees, preparedness for practice of new graduates regulated by the Health Care Professions Council, Fitness to Practise processes in Dentistry, professional support and remediation of doctors, and professional identity formation during interprofessional simulation.

Tom has had major roles in the design and implementation of medical education curricula at Peninsula Medical School, Royal College of Anaesthetists (RCoA) and as Council member for the European Board of Medical Assessors. He was recently involved as a key member of the Curriculum Review and Implementation Groups for the RCoA with responsibility for designing entrustment scales to be incorporated within the new curriculum and for developing assessor-training materials for work place based assessments. The General Medical Council recently appointed him as Chair of the Board for the new Anaesthesia Associate Registration Assessment.

 

Paul Gogerty

'The student/recent graduate lens on sustainability'

Paul Gogerty is a veterinary surgeon, graduating from the University of Edinburgh in 2022 and currently working in mixed practice at Armac Biggar. In 2022, Paul was recognised for his role in developing a bespoke set of courses teaching nature connection and field skills for fellow veterinary students at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies. These courses aimed to encourage practices in nature connection within the greater student body and vet school community and, in doing so, champion the importance of time spent in the natural world for overall physical and mental health and wellbeing.

 

Hannah Davies

BVM&S MRCVS 

'Sustainability and the veterinary curriculum'

Hannah graduated from the University of Glasgow in 2009 and started her career in mixed practice. With a keen interest in one health and sustainability, she completed a masters in International Animal Health whilst working as a Veterinary Programme Advisor for the working animal charity, SPANA. After travelling extensively across Africa and Asia providing training to veterinary teams and communities, Hannah decided to set down roots at the University of Surrey. At Surrey, her main role is to champion the intramural rotations within the final year curriculum, supporting students on farm and equine placements within the university’s partner practice. Alongside this, Hannah champions sustainability within the vet school and wider university, including encouraging others to go green and cycle to work! She has recently taken up a part-time role as Technical Content Lead for Vet Sustain, where she is developing sustainability resources to help veterinary professionals in leveraging their unique niche and skills at the human-animal-environment interface.

 

Anthony Chadwick

BVSc CertVD MRCVS

'Finding Sustainability Solutions within the Wider Veterinary Profession'

Anthony qualified from his home town vet school in Liverpool in 1990 and has spent most of his career in small animal practice. He is the founder of ‘The Webinar Vet’ recognising the need to bring sustainable, accessible and flexible online continuing education into the veterinary

profession. Anthony is facilitating the veterinary industry to regenerate into a more sustainable environmentally friendly space, encouraging others to become more ambitious with their targets on climate, biodiversity and resource use. Anthony is about to host ‘The Veterinary Green Discussion Forum’, a unique CPD event bringing veterinary professionals together for the second year running to work towards finding solutions to our climate crisis.

2023 marks the bicentenary of R(D)SVS so in recognition of this the VetEd2023 committee have chosen the old vet school building as the venue for a social event on the evening before the conference!

The building was purpose made for the vet school and has now been repurposed and is home to a number of arts’ venues, studios and businesses. Many of the original features and spaces have been retained so it’s still very recognisable as a former vet school.

Included in the subsidised ticket price:

LockedIn Edinburgh

An escape room experience that makes use of the former teaching rooms to offer 4 very different experiences. You will be assigned into a group to take on one of these challenges:

• The Cutting Room
• The Distillery
• The Secret Lab
• The Space Academy

More information about LockedIn Edinburgh can be found at www.lockedinedinburgh.com/

Pickering’s Gin Distillery Tour

Edinburgh’s first new gin distillery for 150 years. Summerhall is now home to Pickering’s distillery the makers of Pickering's Gin and The Broody Hen Scotch Whisky. Social event ticket holders will be collected from The Royal Dick Bar (also in Summerhall) for a 45-minute tour of the distillery. The tour will culminate in the opportunity to taste some of Pickering’s delicious gins!

More information about Pickering’s Gin Distillery can be found at https://pickeringsgin.com/

Buffet at the Gallery Bar

Enjoy views over the Meadows, one of Edinburgh’s many beautiful parks, from the former library of the Dick Vet. VetEd2023 will have exclusive use of the Gallery Bar where a selection of hot food be on offer throughout the event.

For more information about Summerhall, please visit: www.summerhall.co.uk/ ​​​​​​

Sponsored by:

 

South Hall Complex is nestled on Pollock Estate beside Holyrood Park.  The park is a city space unlike any other with dramatic hills and crags shaping Edinburgh’s iconic skyline.  Originally part of the 1970’s Commonwealth Games Village, South Hall has since become one of the University’s most popular venues for banqueting and entertainment.