INTRODUCTION
As part of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons’ (RCVS) Professional Development Phase (PDP), graduates are required to reflect on their progress towards the PDP competences. Reflection is often conceptualised as a solitary activity, which may bear little resemblance to day-to-day reflective activities in the workplace. This study drew on cultural-historical activity theory (CHAT) to understand how recently graduated veterinary surgeons engage in reflective activity.
METHODS
Data comprised RCVS documentation and semi-structured interviews with fifteen recent graduates. Thematic analysis was used to describe a collective system of reflective activity, and to explore the experiences and feelings of recent graduates within the system. Drawing on CHAT, analysis then identified and interpreted system-level contradictions with the potential to limit outcomes of reflective activity.
RESULTS
Contradictions were identified within two overarching themes: a need for support for graduates to engage in reflective activity within the workplace, and tensions arising from the formalisation of often informal reflective activities. Graduates need opportunities for talking and/or writing to progress worries into purposeful reflection, underpinned by a shared understanding of reflective activity with colleagues and wider professional networks, and by working practices which facilitate, prioritise and normalise reflective interaction.
DISCUSSION
Analysis of tensions arising from system-level contradictions identified potential avenues to better support veterinary graduates as they negotiate the transition to working life. The findings suggest that reconsideration of the formal expectations of new veterinary graduates and their employers is warranted and timely.
This research was supported by funding from a Bristol Veterinary School Clinical Research Grant, a University of Bristol Teaching Fellowship, and a Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellowship
Introduction
As part of the final year e-Portfolio at Surrey Vet School, students are required to self-audit their progression toward professional competency, by declaring their agreement with each of the 37 RCVS Day One Competences (D1C) after each 4-week rotation, creating eight individual audit time-points from which students can review their development.
Methods
Students are asked to indicate level of agreement for each of the 37 D1C using a five-point likert scale (strongly disagree, agree, neutral, agree, strongly agree), after each rotation. Data entered in to the ePortfolio was extracted for observational analysis and to calculate the cohort (n=41) mean across each of the competences, at each of the eight audit time points.
Results
High levels of agreement were noted in D1C #5, #7, #8, #13, #17, #18, #27 and #30, with a cohort mean of >4.0 consistently recorded at all time points. The cohort mean was below 3.0 for D1C #1, #20 & #36, with 25-30% of the cohort indicating negative agreement, however, greatest gain in student agreement was observed in these areas, with more than one full grade increase evidenced in the cohort mean in D1C #20 & #36.
Discussion
Students entered into final year strongly agreeing with professional competences, including communication, team work and recognising professional limits, as well as core clinical competences such as animal restraint and clinical examination. Greatest student gain was seen in emergency medicine and amtemortem inspections, emphasising the value of final year rotations in developing student competence in these areas.
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