Page 19 - RVC Undergraduate Prospectus 25-26
P. 19

HANDS-ON CLINICAL EXPERIENCE
        CLINICAL SKILLS


        CENTRE




        Our Clinical Skills Centre (CSC) is                   We are not only an inter-professional team, but a neuro-diverse

        based at our Hawkshead Campus and                     team, often working closely with students of different learning
                                                              styles or SENs. We have recently started an online group for
        comprises two large teaching spaces                   neuro-diverse students and are adapting a room in our building
        full of various veterinary equipment                  as a quiet study space to assist learners who may struggle in a
                                                              noisy space. We have a mental health first aider on our team as
        and models dedicated to learning and                  well and pastoral support of students is also a large part of our
        practising skills in a relaxed environment.           role – especially as exams approach!
        It is staffed by an inter-professional                SO WHY A CLINICAL SKILLS CENTRE? A BIT OF HISTORY!
        team of six veterinary staff, dedicated               The RVC was the first veterinary school in Europe to set up a
                                                              Clinical Skills Centre with teaching staff for its students in 2004.
        to supporting and facilitating nursing                The CSC provides a safe environment where students can
        and veterinary students with learning                 learn practical skills in a uniform way. Individual students can
                                                              decide what and how much they need practice in their own time,
        practical skills.                                     following on from the initial small group taught skills classes.
                                                              We equip our students with the basics of a skill, so they will be
                                                              more confident out in practice – be it suturing, holding instruments
        The students can return after their practical classes and try   correctly, scrubbing in or remaining sterile in theatre. This helps
        the skills they have learnt again in their own time, with the   them to integrate better into a veterinary team and thus gain more
        confidence that the staff in the CSC will be on hand to help,   from seeing practice, either as a veterinary or veterinary nursing
        should they encounter difficulties or want reassurance that   student and to be practice ready when they graduate.
        what they are doing is correct.

        Students can practise aspects of many different veterinary
        disciplines, such as:
        •  Anaesthesia             •  Cannula placement                     “Every week we head down to the Clinical
        •  Radiography             •  Fluid therapy                         Skills Centre and put into practise a skill
        •  Lab skills              •  Animal handling                       that ties in with what we’ve been learning
        •  Bandaging               •  Theatre skills                       that week. For example, we learnt about
                                                                         wounds and wound management in our
        …to name but a few!                                   lessons, and then at the end of the week we learnt how to
                                                              bandage wounds in the CSC. Another time we learnt about
        On our virtual learning platform, Learn, all the      nutrition and then we learnt how to syringe feed in the CSC.
        resources the CSC Team have developed can             The CSC staff are so lovely and the CSC itself is amazing!
        be accessed by students including the many            All the skills you need to learn can be practiced there and
        ‘skills sheets’, videos and infographics. We          it really solidifies your learning.”
        use QR codes on the sheets in the CSC, so
        students can scan these to watch the videos           OLIVIA WIMSETT, FdSc Veterinary Nursing
        as they practise a skill.
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