31 Oct 2022
The RCVS president said reform proposals will be published “very soon” after her BVA counterpart warned the COVID crisis had exposed the weaknesses of the present system.
Allister Webb
Job Title
David Barrett.
A senior academic has described the system of arranging practical placements for veterinary students as “broken” amid calls for the sector to listen more to its future colleagues.
David Barrett made the comment after delegates at the BCVA Congress in Birmingham were told student satisfaction rates for placements have fallen in recent years.
But RCVS president Melissa Donald said it would be publishing its wider review of EMS requirements “very soon”.
The session was the latest to focus on the recruitment and retention issues that have caused such widespread concern across the veterinary industry in the past few months.
Delegates heard that while 12% of first-year students planned to pursue careers as farm vets, that proportion dropped to just 8% among those in the final year of their degree programmes.
A BVA survey showed student placement satisfaction levels had fallen from 83% in 2016 to 76% in 2020, with the numbers describing themselves as dissatisfied rising from 16% to 21% during the same period.
Meanwhile, other research indicated two-thirds of students reported seeing practices they considered unethical during their placements, while 31% reported experiencing harassment and 21% said they had experienced sexual harassment.
The session even heard of a case in which a student was said to have faced a disciplinary procedure at their university after leaving a placement overnight because they were so concerned about threats they had faced.
Dr Donald said she had been “horrified” to learn of the extent of the problems that students had faced on placements.
She said: “The more we make people aware of these things, we can change behaviour.”
Nell Savage, a student at the University of Liverpool, said finances were a major barrier to accessing placements as she argued the issues faced by students need greater focus.
She said: “We’re all very good at thinking about antibiotic use, management of animal welfare and global issues, but are we considering students and the workforce? We need to look at the student population more.”
BVA president Malcolm Morley argued recent events had also demonstrated the need for “revolution, not evolution” of the system.
He said: “During COVID, we realised the foundations of EMS were built on sand.”
He argued that a more balanced approach, which was more focused on individual students or their backgrounds instead of the length of time spent on placements, is needed.
He added: “They’re our students now, but they will soon be our colleagues.”
Later, during a panel discussion, Prof Barrett – director of education at the University of Bristol veterinary school – said the issues highlighted showed the extent of the challenge the RCVS faces to instigate reform, adding: “I think the system is broken.”
Following a floor comment that students frequently cancelled placements at late notice, he also urged practices not to require students to book their placements up to two years in advance, arguing that such a timescale meant students had to book when they didn’t even know their term dates.
He said: “I think that would reduce a lot of your problems, on both sides.”
Prof Barrett added that he was “slightly disappointed” that a review by the RCVS of EMS requirements had not yet been published, nearly a year after the college led stakeholder talks on the issue.
Temporary EMS requirements will remain in place for students who are expected to graduate in each of the next three years, or four in the case of those at the University of Cambridge.
The standard requirement for students to complete 12 weeks of work on animal handling topics is currently reduced to six with additional online activities, while the clinical placement threshold will rise from 13 weeks in 2023 to 20 in 2024 and the usual 26 weeks in 2025.
Dr Donald said the review would be released “very soon”, but argued students whose EMS training had been disrupted most during the pandemic had suffered more than others.
She added: “We’re extremely aware of everything that is going on and we don’t want to fix one thing at the cost of another.”
Concerns were also raised during the session about the low levels of men joining veterinary degree programmes, although, it was acknowledged that enabling change in that area would be a long-term process.
Ami Sawran – practice principal of the Westpoint Farm Vets practice in Chelmsford and a member of the boards of its owner VetPartners, the Farm Executive Board and the Society of Practising Veterinary Surgeons – said the industry needed to be aware of the “roadblocks” preventing people from entering.
Prof Barrett also urged delegates to inspire young people by enabling them to see what goes on in practices.
