Keeping abreast of changes

Sian Smith – pictured in the charity’s reception area – says a range of creative, outdoor and well-being workshops and courses are on offer CPD stands for Continuing Professional Development and is the phrase that vets use to describe the on-going process of training and education that forms an essential part of keeping up to date with new thinking, techniques and treatments.

Medicine is a fast moving, dynamic field. At Donaldson’s Vets, all of our Clinical Staff have to undertake a minimum of 35 hours training every year and most of us do considerably more.

The format of the training and the topics selected are dependent on the clinicians’ area of work and so, having vets who treat everything from hamsters to water buffalo (pictured), the training that our vets undertake is enormously varied.

Much of the training that we do is organised by specialist training providers and so the courses involve meeting vets from other practices around the country for lectures, seminars and practical training sessions.

Sometimes training is organised at the surgery for a group of our own staff.

This week, we have organised a staff training evening for our new CT scanning service.

Many, many years ago, when I attended university, CT scanning in veterinary medicine just did not exist. As a result, during my veterinary training, I had no training in the use of a CT scanner.

CT scanning is still unusual in first opinion veterinary practice, although it has become more common in referral practice. A few months ago, we started having a mobile CT scanner come to visit and so we can now offer CT facilities for our clients at the Maple Street Hospital at Aspley. This provides better convenience, and helps to keep the costs of investigation down while enabling our patients to benefit from this fantastic diagnostic tool.

The evening CPD meeting will be attended by around 40 staff from across the Donaldson’s Group and, with two speakers lined up for the evening, promises to be a really informative evening.

In addition to Donaldson’s staff, several vets from practices across West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Lancashire will also be attending as we are becoming a regional centre for a large number of veterinary practices to refer their CT cases.