Veterinary education during COVID-19

The SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic has presented significant challenges to us all, locally, nationally and internationally. It has affected all our working practices and the lives of our colleagues, clients and patients. Working at the Royal Veterinary College Equine Referral Hospital I am also seeing the huge effect the pandemic is having on the education of our veterinary students. Lectures have moved online, with onsite practical components of the course adjusted to fall in line with social distancing requirements. A significant amount of work has been undertaken by those in veterinary education, in a very short space of time, to provide as innovative, rich and engaging material as is possible online.

In the Equine Referral Hospital, the current final year students have missed out on 6 months of on-site rotations between March and September, so these students now join those intended to be on rotation now. As a result, there are more students on rotation at once. This, combined with the requirement that group sizes be reduced to facilitate social distancing in the clinic rooms, means that students are spending less time in the clinic overall. Further online case material has been provided but we are under no illusions that there is any real substitute for contact with clinical cases. That being said, I have been overwhelmed by the maturity our students have shown and their eagerness to benefit from the practical experiences that are available.