What are some examples of misconduct in practice?
- Criminal offence
- Disruption of or improper interference with the academic, administrative, sporting, social or other activities of the university
- Violent, indecent, disorderly, threatening, intimidating or offensive language or behaviour
- Sexual or racial harassment
- Fraud, deceit, deception or dishonesty
- Cheating or plagiarism
- Theft, misappropriation or misuse of university property
- Misuse or unauthorised use of university premises
- Damage to university property
- Action likely to cause injury or impair safety
What is good conduct required in practice?
- Treat all animals with proper care and consideration
- Ensure client confidentiality
- Be honest
- Avoid bringing the reputation of the veterinary profession, the university or the veterinary school into disrepute
- Treat all colleagues, including other students, vets, nurses, support staff and placement providers, with respect
- Be present, punctual, properly dressed, equipped and prepared
What is the primary function of professional regulation?
To protect the public and their animals by:
- Maintaining professional registers
- Setting standards for education and practice
- Investigating and adjudicating fitness to practice cases
What are the 5 principles used to test whether any regulation is fit for purpose?
- Proportionality – regulators should intervene only when necessary. Remedies should be appropriate to the risk posed and costs identified and minimised.
- Accountability – regulators should be able to justify decisions and be subject to public scrutiny.
- Consistency – government rules and standard must eb joined up and implemented fairly.
- Transparency – regulators should be open, and keep regulations simple and use-friendly.
- Targeting – regulation should be focused on the problem and minimise side effects.
What are the activities of the RCVS in professional regulation?
Register veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses to practice in the UK
Regulate their educational, ethical and clinical standards.
Describe the professional regulation of the RCVS.
- Responsible for overseeing the education of UK veterinary students, the registration of UK veterinary graduates and overseas veterinary surgeons and the fitness to practise of veterinary surgeons.
- Only those appropriately registered with the RCVS have the right to practise veterinary surgery in the UK.
- Regulates veterinary surgeons in accordance with the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966, to protect the public interest and to safeguard animal health and welfare.
- Admission to membership of the RCVS, and in exchange for the right to practise veterinary surgery in the UK, every veterinary surgeon makes a declaration.
- Supporting guidance provides further advice on the proper standards of professional practice.
- On occasions, the professional responsibilities in the Code may conflict with each other and veterinary surgeons may be presented with a dilemma. In such situations, veterinary surgeons should balance the professional responsibilities, having regard first to animal welfare.
What are the 6 professional responsibilities?
- Veterinary surgeons and animals
- Veterinary surgeons and clients
- Veterinary surgeons and the profession
- Veterinary surgeons and the veterinary team
- Veterinary surgeons and the RCVS
- Veterinary surgeons and the public
What are 5 principles of practice?
- Professional competence
- Honesty and integrity
- Independence and impartiality
- Client confidentiality and trust
- Professional accountability
What are the stages of the RCVS complaints procedure?
- Case assessment
- Case examination
- Preliminary investigation committee
- Disciplinary committee
What is the general framework for making a decision?
- Recognise an issue
- Get the facts
- Research and evaluate alternative options
- Make a transparent decision and test it
- Act and reflect on the outcome
What are the stages of approaching a clinical case?
- Signalment
- Presenting complaint
- History
- Clinical exam
- Problem list
- Differential diagnosis
- Diagnostic tests
- Diagnostic results
- Final diagnosis
- Treatment plan
- Prognosis and results
What is recognition/type 1 reasoning?
Can be described as intuitive, non-analytical and is based on prior experiences.
However, you may not have the full facts because they are unknown or you haven’t looked for them, will be influenced by own experiences, common things occur commonly is a good adage to live by but sometimes uncommon things occur, you can end up jumping to conclusions.
What is analytical/type 2 reasoning?
Uses the information gathered from the signalment, history and clinical examination. Creating a problem list, listing differentials and a diagnostic plan. Then carrying out appropriate tests to confirm or eliminate differentials.
However this takes mental effort and our brains couldn’t cope if every decision we made followed this approach.
What reasoning should vets use?
Ideally vets will be using a blend of type 1 and type 2. Solutions from analytical reasoning are retained in long-term memory to be used in the future during pattern reasoning. Once you have worked through a case using analytical reasoning, you know the ‘pattern’ of signs and results in a pyometra, so you will be more likely to spot future similar patterns.
Why should vets be cautious about relying on pattern recognition?
- It could be disastrous to miss vital information by not taking a more measured and analytical approach where necessary
- Using a complimentary blend of both reasoning approaches is the best way to achieve accurate diagnoses in an efficient manner
What does the RCVS advise on decision making?
- Ensure the health and welfare of animals committed to my care
- Make decisions on treatment regimens based first and foremost on animal health and welfare considerations, but also the needs and circumstances of the client
- Ensure that a range of reasonable treatment options are offered and explained, including prognoses and possible side effects
- Discussion should take place with the client, covering a range of reasonable treatment options and prognoses, and the likely charges
- Recognise the need, in some cases, to balance what treatment might be necessary, appropriate or possible against the circumstances, wishes and financial considerations of the client
- Encourage clients to take a full part in any discussion and to ask questions about their options or any other aspect of their animal’s care
- Veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses should seek to ensure that what both they and clients are saying is heard and understood on both sides
- Recognise that the client has freedom of choice
What skills do vets need to be effective negotiators?
- Active listening skills
- Good questioning skills
- Time and space for effective negotiation
- Awareness of personal attitudes and level of knowledge
- Empathy
- Flexibility in thinking
- Patience and acceptance of other’s viewpoints
- Objectively and an ability to convey the bigger picture
What is a profession?
A vocation requiring knowledge of some department of learning or science/ any vocation or business / the body of persons engaged in occupation or calling / occupation, practice or vocation requiring mastery of a complex set of knowledge and skills through formal education and/or practical experience, and each s governed by its own respective professional body.
Define professional.
Someone belonging to a professional / skillful or competent / person formally certified by a professional body of belonging to a specific profession by virtue of having completed a required course of studies and/or practice and whose competence can usually be measured against an established set of standards / a person who has achieved an acclaimed level of proficiency in a calling or trade.
What is professionalism?
Defined by membership of a learned community that suggests a sense of skillful competency.
What are the 9 protected characteristics of the 2010 Equality Act?
- Age
- Disability gender reassignment
- Marriage and civil partnership
- Pregnancy and maternity
- Race
- Religion or belief
- Sex
What are 5 principles of professional conduct/RCVS’s principles of practice?
- Professional competence
- Honesty and integrity
- Independence and impartiality
- Client confidentiality and trust
- Professional accountability
What is professional identity?
- Increasingly being discussed in the context of wellbeing and retention
- What does it mean to be a vet now?
- Are we being realistic in defining what the ‘perfect vet’ should be?
- Are only clinicians ‘proper vets’?
- Do we over-identify with our profession?
What is Kolb’s Experiential Learning Cycle 1984?
- Plan
- Do
- Reflect
- Conclude
