This month is particularly exciting for equine professionals, with the return of the British Equine Veterinary Association Congress. As expected, robust COVID-19 safety measures will be in place to ensure delegates can attend with confidence. The programme is impressively diverse and caters to all members of the profession, with a number of non-clinical subjects also being covered. These will include discussions of work-life balance, learning from human epidemics and staying safe at work. It is refreshing to see increasing attention being paid to such matters and we should all make an effort to make time to expand our learning outside of the clinical bubble.
Newer members of the profession are more aware of the importance of a healthy work environment and, as concepts such as flexible working hours filter through the profession, we will all have to adapt. Rather like learning new clinical skills, we can all learn new life skills and modify our working practices accordingly. Often, looking outside the equine veterinary world at other professions can be extremely illuminating. Indeed, only through our preparation to modify and adapt to new working practices, particularly with regard to mental health, will we be able to attract the vibrant individuals we need as equine vets.
That pandemic has forced all continuing professional development providers online, making it feel rather clustered, so it is fantastic to see face-to-face learning re-appearing. While the pandemic has proven that online learning will undoubtedly be part of all our futures, a ‘blended approach’ seems most appropriate, especially in a profession where someone typically has to stay at home to ‘hold down the fort’!
This year's BEVA Congress also has a virtual programme, allowing those unable to attend to benefit from the excellent material on offer. As we move forward with smaller CPD meetings being offered once again, especially with practical components, we must look to support these by signing up. Of course, we can learn a lot online, but meeting colleagues and talking about our work and our lives is invaluable and enriches our lives as veterinarians. Also, learning practical skills, such as ultrasound scanning, can be so much more rewarding when you are being guided through the process. After the last 18 months, it will inevitably feel strange being in close proximity to others again, but with the vaccination programme in its advanced stage and the availability of the NHS COVID-19 Pass via the NHS App, we can attend these meetings with confidence.
In addition to professional development meetings, high quality education is provided by a number of veterinary journals. UK-Vet Equine continues to provide learning material written by experienced contributors, with an emphasis on practical applications. As always, this edition contains a range of interesting articles: Tamzin Furtado looks at the highly practical subject of alternate grazing to optimise the health and wellbeing of horses; Rachel Gough and Kate McGovern have contributed a highly useful article on the cause, diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease in adult horses. Kate, along with Lucy Sheard, also reviews the complicated subject of equine lymphoma and Tania Sundra looks at the role of esomeprazole in the treatment of equine glandular gastric disease. A highly useful and important article by Marie Rippingale reviews the nursing care of geriatric donkeys while Helen Whitelegg discusses how best to nurse a horse with strangles.
We are so fortunate to have such a vast choice of excellent learning resources. However, we must also take time to learn about how to develop and modernise our profession, to ensure we continue to attract the very best people into it EQ.