Professional Skills

Course Description

The Professional Skills coursework (VETM 802A, 802B, 802C, and 802D) represents four consecutive semesters of interactive learning designed to introduce students to key occupational attributes that are required for success in clinical practice. Unifying themes for the professional skills curriculum include: o Personal identity o Professional identity: how we define ourselves and our roles within the context of veterinary medicine? o Our perspective as compared to others', as well as the assumptions and biases that form the lens that shapes our worldview. o Evolving identities and perspectives: how do our past and present experiences impact our future? o Delivering relationship-centered care: what is expected versus what can we provide? Who determines standard of care? Does standard of care change? How do our assumptions and biases influence our delivery of care? o Intent versus impact VETM 802D will take these clinically relevant conversations to the next level. Students will actively engage in dialogue about: o The human-animal bond o What are the determinants of the bond? o How do we see the bond? o How do others see the bond? o What to do when the bond breaks? o Challenging clinical conversations o Risk factors: how to manage zoonotic disease in our patients and the people in the household o The medical and legal aspects of managing rabies suspects o Problematic behaviors (e.g. inappropriate elimination, separation anxiety) that do not stem from underlying medical pathology o What to do (and say) when clients' actions inadvertently endanger the patient's life o Medical errors Emphasis will be placed on how to navigate crucial conversations more effectively in clinical practice. To facilitate practice with communication skills, students will have an opportunity to work through simulated encounters, using one-on-one experiences with standardized clients. As students develop proficiency in foundational communication skills, their encounters with standardized clients will task them to revisit history-taking in a variety of species (canine/feline/equine/exotic) as well as the second half of the Calgary-Cambridge consultation model, explaining and planning. Simulations will expand so that students can practice consultations from beginning to end, keeping the same patient in mind. Students will also be challenged to acknowledge and address medical errors with clients. Students will learn how to navigate situations in which clients' actions (e.g. poor husbandry) caused pathology (e.g. metabolic bone disease in iguanas).

Code

VETM 802D

Credits

3

Subject

Veterinary Medicine, Col of