'Gold standard care' is an unhelpful term.

Members of Veterinary Humanities UK argue that the vet professions should move away from using the term 'gold standard care' and instead adopt 'contextualised care', which acknowledges that different treatment pathways are able to offer equally acceptable patient journeys in different contexts.

Educational Research Report Development of International Learning Outcomes for Shelter Medicine in Veterinary Education: A Delphi Approach.

Shelter medicine is a veterinary discipline of growing importance. Formally accepted as a clinical specialty in the US in 2014, the practice of shelter medicine worldwide is expanding. As a topic in veterinary pre-registration (undergraduate) education, it is frequently used as an opportunity to teach primary care skills, but increasingly recognized as a subject worthy of teaching in its own right. The aim of this study was to use a Delphi consensus methodology to identify learning outcomes relevant to shelter medicine education. Shelter medicine educators worldwide in a variety of settings, including universities, non-governmental organizations and shelters were invited to participate. Participants were initially invited to share shelter medicine teaching materials. These were synthesized and formatted into Learning Outcomes (LOs) based on Bloom's taxonomy and organized into five subject-specific domains. Participants were then asked to develop and evaluate the identified LOs in two rounds of online surveys. Consensus was determined at > 80% of panelists selecting "agree" or "strongly agree" in response to the statement "please indicate whether you would advise that it should be included in a shelter medicine education program" for each LO. In the second survey, where re-wording of accepted LOs was suggested, preference was determined at > 50% agreement. Through this method, 102 agreed LOs have been identified and refined. These LOs, as well as those which did not reach consensus, are presented here. These are intended for use by shelter medicine educators worldwide, to enable and encourage the further development of this important veterinary discipline.

Developing Inter-Professional Education Initiatives to Aid Working and Learning Between Veterinarians and Veterinary Nurses/Vet Techs.

The veterinary workplace consists of different professionals working together in inter-professional teams. Previous work has explored the benefits of effective veterinary teamwork for multiple stakeholders. In this teaching tip article, we outline the underlying educational theories and tips for developing inter-professional teaching to foster students' appreciation of the different roles and responsibilities of veterinarians and veterinary nurses/vet techs. Inter-professional education (IPE) requires students to learn with, about, and from each other and implies recognition of social learning as an underpinning approach. It involves developing learning opportunities to address students' potential misunderstandings of each other's motivations, to allow them to explore issues present in the other profession's practice, and to clarify sometimes overlapping roles and responsibilities. Students are given opportunities to explore the complexity of inter-professional teamwork in a safe environment using real-life topics as context for their collaboration. Two veterinary examples of IPE at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) are provided to explore different teaching methods and topics that have proved successful in our context: dentistry and directed learning scenarios. We describe how RVC has developed an IPE team consisting of faculty members who champion IPE, which has, in turn, inspired students to create a student-led IPE club, hosting extracurricular educational events. This is an example of an effective student-teacher partnership. A number of challenges exist in embedding IPE, but the benefits it offers in integrating clinical and professional elements of the curricula make it worthy of consideration.

Development of International Learning Outcomes for Shelter Medicine in Veterinary Education: A Delphi Approach.

Shelter medicine is a veterinary discipline of growing importance. Formally accepted as a clinical specialty in the US in 2014, the practice of shelter medicine worldwide is expanding. As a topic in veterinary pre-registration (undergraduate) education, it is frequently used as an opportunity to teach primary care skills, but increasingly recognized as a subject worthy of teaching in its own right. The aim of this study was to use a Delphi consensus methodology to identify learning outcomes relevant to shelter medicine education. Shelter medicine educators worldwide in a variety of settings, including universities, non-governmental organizations and shelters were invited to participate. Participants were initially invited to share shelter medicine teaching materials. These were synthesized and formatted into Learning Outcomes (LOs) based on Bloom's taxonomy and organized into five subject-specific domains. Participants were then asked to develop and evaluate the identified LOs in two rounds of online surveys. Consensus was determined at > 80% of panelists selecting "agree" or "strongly agree" in response to the statement "please indicate whether you would advise that it should be included in a shelter medicine education program" for each LO. In the second survey, where re-wording of accepted LOs was suggested, preference was determined at > 50% agreement. Through this method, 102 agreed LOs have been identified and refined. These LOs, as well as those which did not reach consensus, are presented here. These are intended for use by shelter medicine educators worldwide, to enable and encourage the further development of this important veterinary discipline.

The Effect of Name and Narrative Voice in Online Adoption Profiles on the Length of Stay of Sheltered Cats in the UK.

A prolonged length of stay (LOS) in a rehoming shelter can be detrimental to cat behaviour, health and welfare. Research shows LOS is impacted by animal signalment, behaviour and personality, whether or not previously owned or a stray, and considerations such as cage placement, cage design and the provision of enrichment. A retrospective study was undertaken at a charity organisation that rehomes surrendered and stray cats from three UK shelters. Records from 2011 to 2015, relating to 4460 rehomed cats aged between 1.0 year and 20.1 years old, were analysed to investigate factors that might affect LOS. Univariate and multivariate analysis determined the effects of name, adoption description (first person vs. third person), age and sex on LOS. The final multivariate model demonstrated that age, sex and adoption description, but not name, had a significant effect on LOS. Younger cats, male cats and cats with adoption profiles written in the third person had a significantly shorter mean LOS. Survival curves conducted using a log-rank test and time-to-event analysis, using the dates of relinquishment and rehoming, revealed that cats with a third person description had a shorter LOS. Shelters should consider writing adoption descriptions in the third person to minimise LOS.