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EQUINE VETERINARY EDUCATION


Equine vet. Educ. (2019) 31 (8) 396-397 doi: 10.1111/eve.13034


Editorial Putting meaning into continuing professional development


It is accepted that a part of the social contract that gives legitimacy to the professions is the responsibility placed on individual members to keep up-to-date in the areas in which they serve the public (Thistlethwaite and Spencer 2008). Prior to our current era of scientific progress, this was not difficult. ‘Standard texts’ (e.g. Markham’s Masterpiece), which were widely used, ran to multiple editions that spanned several generations (1610–1734), with little alteration (Poynter 1962). However, the late 20th and early 21st centuries have seen an acceleration in our understanding of health and disease and the choices available for animal health management and therapy. Therefore, for modern practitioners, in contrast to the past, it cannot be assumed that knowledge and skills learned in clinical school will be current even a few years later, never mind at the end of a career spanning at least 40 years (Van Hoof and Meehan 2011). In the past, the relatively slow pace of knowledge and


skills development meant that traditional lectures and approaches to updating clinicians worked – or at least up to a point. Certainly, information was transmitted, but this was not always learned and the lecture was a relatively poor way of turning knowledge into changed clinician behaviours and practice/client benefits (Davis et al. 1999). However, rapid progress of knowledge in all areas means that, as individual professionals, each of us needs (and only has time for) the specific new knowledge and innovations relevant to our own practice and this, together with the inefficiency of many individuals’ approaches to continuing professional development (CPD), means that professional bodies and veterinary associations are encouraging more reflective and organised approaches to CPD; approaches that truly bring meaning to CPD (Wallace and May 2016). For many equine and other large animal practitioners,


practice is an ambulatory service, with large blocks of time spent alone and away from colleagues. Face-to-face CPD plays an important social function in reinforcing our collective endeavours and the standards we expect of one another. However, without thought, we often gravitate to lectures and workshops in our own areas of expertise (Schostak et al. 2010). We feel good about being able to confirm that we are largely up-to-date and fail to recognise the poor learning value in terms of the amount of time spent for only a few nuggets of new information – if that. We miss opportunities to attend alternative sessions on subjects about which we know less which could address knowledge and skills gaps that are hampering the progress of our personal practice and that of our businesses. One of the most important RCVS day one competences


and responsibilities of veterinary schools is that of independent, lifelong learning – taking charge of our own professional development. In order to undertake that, we need to be selfaware, recognising not only our many strengths but also the areas we need to improve. For that, we need to be able to reflect on how we are practising (May 2017). We need to be able to identify and recognise the required professional standards for the tasks we undertake, compare that with our current level of performance and,


© 2018 EVJ Ltd


where there are gaps, source and undertake the learning necessary to close those gaps (Sadler 1989). Increasingly, that is a continuous cycle of self-audit that both assures and enhances the quality of the services we provide. Rather than being flattered by attending lectures or reading articles on a subject about which we know a lot, particularly as our professional lives develop, we find ourselves taking pleasure from relevant and meaningful learning from reading articles written by experts in a diverse range of new fields to us and, in some cases, discussions directly with them or attending their workshops. Where a session only partly addresses a learning need, or disappoints entirely, our reflective recognition of this allows us to plan for further learning and also to provide meaningful feedback on sessions that did not meet their authors’ learning goals. Not only is our own learning of higher quality and more efficiently achieved but we ensure that CPD providers continuously improve their offerings to the benefit of all our colleagues. As CPD evolves, models are emerging that provide


genuinely continuous professional development in the workplace. Through supported reflection on our daily tasks and responsibilities in formal (such as the RCVS CertAVP) and informal systems, individuals can start to focus on their next areas in need of development, and share these with colleagues, at the same time as contributing in a reciprocal way to the development of these colleagues. This cascading of the development process is unusual in traditional CPD contexts, but has been recognised as an extension of personal and community-relevant CPD activity (May and Kinnison 2015). At their best, these integrated professional developmental activities, involving the whole workforce, are a part of the ethos and culture of what have been termed ‘deliberately developmental organisations’ where ‘people’s ongoing development is woven into the daily fabric of working life’ and ‘visible in the company’s regular operations, day-to-day routines and conversations’ (Kegan et al. 2014).


S. A. MAY


Department of Clinical Science and Services, Royal Veterinary College, Hatfield, Hertfordshire, UK


References


Davis, D., O’Brien, M.A.T., Freemantle, N., Wolf, F.M., Mazmanian, P. and Taylor-Vaisey, A. (1999) Impact of Formal Continuing Medical Education: do conferences, rounds, and other traditional continuing education activities change physician behavior or health care outcomes? J. Am. Med. Assoc. 282, 867-874.


Kegan, R., Lahey, L., Fleming, A., Miller, M. and Markus, I. (2014) The deliberately developmental organization. Way to Grow March, 1-14.


May, S.A. (2017) Reflection and our professional lives. UK-Vet Comp. Anim. 22, 32-36.


May, S.A. and Kinnison, T. (2015) Continuing professional development: learning that leads to change in individual and collective clinical practice. Vet. Rec. 177, 13.


Poynter, F.N.L. (1962) A Bibliography of Gervase Markham (1568?- 1637), Oxford Bibliographical Society, Oxford.


Continued on page 409


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