Continuing professional development: what, where, when and how…

Q What are the benefits of live event learning when cost and logistics can often make remote learning seem like a more appealing option?

A There are huge benefits to a live learning experience; it’s immersive, there are no distractions and everyone is in the same environment with shared objectives. Learning works best for many as a social and two-way process. Live learning facilitates this full-sense experience, allowing for much greater interaction – both with speakers and peers. Questions are easier to ask and answer, and there will be no ambiguity from typed submissions. Live learning also allows for greater networking.

Q Is there anything specific about veterinary CPD that lends itself to a live-interactive experience?

A Congress is unique in the UK with offering wet labs, and a huge variety of practical dry labs that help to consolidate skills, and is an important part of learning new techniques from experts. Hands-on experiences are an excellent way to consolidate learning, gain intimate access to experts and develop skills that can be implemented back in practice right away.

Q You plan the BSAVA CPD offering. What drives that process and what do you think is the secret of its success?

A Our programme is created by a group of highly qualified, skilled, and motivated vets and nurses who have a passion for delivering CPD to all stages of the profession. It takes 18 months to pull each programme together, ensuring a balance of subjects, styles and that it meets the current needs of the profession. We also work with our volunteers to keep the social programme fresh – as after a day of learning, it’s important to take a break and relax with friends, old and new.

Q How do you keep it fresh every year and how do you think live events may evolve in coming years?

A BSAVA is very fortunate to have a dedicated group of more than 200 volunteers, ranging from new graduates in practice to highly experienced specialist vets and nurses. This resource is invaluable to tap into, to learn what vets and nurses in practice want and need. We also learn huge amounts from delegates, speakers and exhibitors through comprehensive feedback surveys to directly inform future decision making.

A Evolution is a key word for us at the moment with congress moving to Manchester in 2021; a significant change borne from listening to feedback and striving to provide the absolute best live educational experience.

Q Do you think live events will ever become a thing of the past? If not, why not?

A Humans are a sociable species that will always benefit from being together, sharing, having face-to-face interactions, and for that sense of togetherness in a profession that can be at-times isolating and unpredictable. Congress, and our other live CPD events, are there to support evidence based learning, but more than that it’s about the community that BSAVA is dedicated to facilitating, not just at congress but throughout the regions. We remain by the profession, for the profession, and live events are integral to that core belief.

Q What would you say are the strengths of live learning events such as LVS?

A For some people, the immediacy of a live event, the opportunity to discuss the lecture with colleagues or to directly ask the lecturer questions really supports their learning and they miss that if they are learning online. As well, some find it hard to carve out the time for online learning or they find the self-directed nature of it challenging – you do get out of it what you put in, more so than onsite events.

A Another really positive aspect of live events is the opportunity to attend an event where they can choose which lecture out of many they wish to attend (big meetings like LVS and BSAVA Congress) and thus cover a range of clinical and professional areas in one day.

A Live events also provide the opportunity to just socialise and have fun and also interact with commercial exhibitors and learn about new products, etc. So I really don’t believe that onsite is better than online or online is better than onsite – it is all about what suits the individual learner.

Q You plan the LVS clinical stream. What drives that process, and what do you think is the secret of its success?

A I try to programme the clinical streams by thinking about the challenges that vets face in general practice and by framing the lectures around solving problems, addressing misconceptions, and ideally, bringing new evidence-based knowledge to the audience. The lecturers are very firmly briefed that the lectures must not be about showcasing the wonderful things they can do as specialists, but how their knowledge, experience, research etc can help vets in general practice enhance their practice for the benefit of their patients and clients. Some of my ideas come from things that scare me when I am consulting on a Saturday morning in a local practice, some come from my experience of the misconceptions vets may have because things have changed since they graduated – or the issues weren’t particularly well taught at undergraduate level.

Q How do you keep the programme so fresh every year?

A I really have no idea. I panic every year that I won’t be able to come up with fresh ideas, but somehow they still seem to come, new things get discovered or documented, lectures from a previous year will trigger thoughts about what would be interesting for next year, discussion with colleagues about the issues they see as important in their areas of practice and expertise and increasingly the increasing interest in non-technical professional skills and how they impact on animals, clients and vets.

Q How do elements, such as wet labs and live demonstrations, add to the experience for delegates?

A They have their logistical challenges and by nature are difficult to really scale up but they are another form of learning and the more variety of experiences there can be at an event like LVS or BSAVA the more likely it is that everyone will go away satisfied that their learning needs have been met.

A Evolution is a key word for us at the moment with congress moving to Manchester in 2021; a significant change borne from listening to feedback and striving to provide the absolute best live educational experience.

Q Do you think live events will ever become a thing of the past? If not, why not?

A Humans are a sociable species that will always benefit from being together, sharing, having face-to-face interactions, and for that sense of togetherness in a profession that can be at-times isolating and unpredictable. Congress, and our other live CPD events, are there to support evidence based learning, but more than that it’s about the community that BSAVA is dedicated to facilitating, not just at congress but throughout the regions. We remain by the profession, for the profession, and live events are integral to that core belief.

Q Could you outline how the Vet-eCPD delivery model works?

A We provide online CPD in the form of professionally filmed footage of vet and nurse CPD attendance courses. The footage is edited into lecture-size chunks so that people can choose to watch either the whole course or just individual lectures in their own time and earn CPD credit as they go. Lecture notes are provided, and credit is earned by completing a short series of multiple-choice questions at the end of each lecture. Filming attendance courses allows us to produce more engaging courses than the more traditional webinar format. The site also includes individual “how-to” videos for a wide variety of clinical procedures. We have two payment options, subscription and pay-per-view.

Q What are the benefits of this type of learning?

A Our library of material is extensive and growing all the time: new footage is added to the site each week currently. We have resources across a wide range of subject areas and catering to different levels of experience. This means that vets and nurses can choose to focus on improving their basic knowledge in areas they might feel weaker in, or work to gain deeper knowledge in particular areas of interest. The ability to form their own learning journey facilitates more structured learning prioritised around individual need, rather than just regarding CPD as a box ticking exercise to complete the required hours.

Q You have recently built a studio in London. How does this complement your offering?

A The site is in central London and provides a comfortable lecture space, along with a fully equipped surgical training suite for cadaver-based surgical training, as well as ultrasonography practicals on live aninals. There is also a clinical pathology zone equipped with microscopes. The setup has also been designed to ensure the optimal conditions for generating high-quality filmed footage. Most recently, we have introduced a new screen in our surgical skills area so that instead of crowding around one table while a procedure is being demonstrated by a lecturer, delegates can view the live, close-up footage on an adjacent big-screen TV.

Q Do you think this type of CPD complements more traditional forms. If so, why?

A Yes; because our library of resources is very extensive it makes it easy for users to develop a greater breadth and depth of knowledge in a subject area as and when they feel inspired to do so, for example, after attending a traditional CPD course on the topic. We have just introduced a bespoke “blended learning” options for some of our corporate clients. This involves allocated training videos being completed online by delegates, ahead of attending a practical course. This helps people to “hit the ground running” at their attendance sessions and focus on the hands-on elements.

Q How is the company likely to evolve its offering in such a fast-moving market?

A We will be offering modular online and blended-learning courses in specific areas, such as new-graduate support and “refresher” packages, as well as in specific clinical topics. Additionally, we are currently producing videos for trainee nurses to use to support nurses in their training. We have aimed to “future-proof” out platform by engaging with RCVS’ proposed new CPD model: our training programme function complements the proposed cycle of planning, doing, recording and reflecting on a yearly basis.

Q Could you outline how The Webinar Vet provides CPD?

A When I started The Webinar Vet I was a vet who struggled to do his CPD. Often at the end of an evening surgery I would have to drive an hour away to go to an hour of CPD at a hotel. When I learned about webinars at an internet congress, I realised this was a solution to some of those issues. All of our CPD is provided online. We don’t do any physical CPD. There are plenty of good companies who provide this.

Q Could you give an idea of numbers and the general growth of your congress event in terms of, for example, new streams and content?

A The virtual congress (VC) has been going since 2013. It started off with slightly more than 300 delegates and had more than 6,000 at VC2019. It takes place over a weekend. VC2020 will celebrate our 10th anniversary and will be a 24-hour congress-athon on 1 February. There will be a mixture of live and recorded webinars, but the whole event is recorded and available for one year to all who purchased. As part of our One4One initiative, all vets who buy a ticket, donate one to a vet in a developing country.

Q Do you think this type of CPD complements more traditional forms, and if so, why?

A To do your hours in a more traditional way is expensive in terms of time and money. However, if you attend one of two physical congresses a year you get to see friends and colleagues and pick up some hours od CPD, the rest can be done in a more time-efficient way, which is important in our busy world. Clearly webinars are not practical training so the theory can be taught via webinar before people attend practical training.

Q I know you have been working with augmented reality (AR) tech for some time. How might this ultimately fit into The Webinar Vet’s future offerings?

A Mixed reality is so exciting and Microsoft recently brought out Hololens 2. Mixed reality will revolutionise the way we learn as vets and nurses. Learning in 3D will have a massive impact on training vet students in veterinary anatomy, for example. I think in five years many of us will be wearing mixed reality glasses/headsets to watch webinars and also by adding haptic technology we will be able to practise surgery before touching the patient. I am very excited about this area.