The united professions in America

I was warned that the RCVS presidency involves a considerable amount of travel and certainly the first two weeks of my tenure have reinforced that message. Whilst the majority of RCVS meetings are now held virtually, there are some that really have to be face to face, including of course graduation ceremonies and conferences. The result of that, is that from home in Cumbria during July, I travelled to London, Edinburgh, Nottingham and Liverpool for hugely enjoyable graduation ceremonies and in-between I was fortunate enough to visit Denver, Colorado with our CEO Lizzie Lockett as guests of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

Whilst I try wherever possible to choose travel with the lowest possible environmental impact, in anticipation of my expanding carbon footprint during my time as President, I committed as a life member of the Woodland trust earlier this year, to offset my travel to minimize the effect of air flight and car journeys.

Although the visit to AVMA was brief it gave me the opportunity to interact with many of the other international regulators that were there, including the Australasian Veterinary Boards Council (AVBC) and European Association of Establishments for European Veterinary Education (EAEVE), I was also able to listen to presentations from international delegates from as far afield as the Chinese Veterinary Medical Association and the Commonwealth Veterinary Association, as well as an inspiring talk from veterinary colleagues in war torn Ukraine. 

It was interesting to see that the global veterinary profession faces many of the same challenges that we do in the UK. There is a real commonality of themes including workforce, mental health and the cost of living crisis. The AVMA like the RCVS has recognised the value of mentorship within the professions and in my address to the AVMA House of Delegates I was able to share details of the RCVS’s compulsory Veterinary Graduate Development Programme (VetGDP). It was also gratifying to see the AVBC acknowledge the strength of the new RCVS outcomes focused, risk based  approach to accreditation methodology and standards, which we introduced at the beginning of this year, and they suggested they will probably follow our lead in instituting a similar process as they update their own standards. The AVBC were also very complimentary about the compassionate approach to regulation as outlined in our 2020 to 2024 Strategic Plan and championed by Lizzie!

Other shared themes at the congress were sustainability and the environmental impact of veterinary medicine, covered in a range of Continuing Education (CE) sessions from anesthesia and ozone depletion to climate change and the food supply chain, all of which focused on ways in which the different arms of the veterinary profession can become more environmentally sustainable. I attended several sessions on diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly about the work of the Diversity Veterinary Medicine Coalition (DVMC) supported by the AVMA and several of the large pharmaceutical companies, as well as talks on leadership, gender equality and widening participation.

AVMA has for some time recognized the importance of the health and wellbeing of the whole practice team and it was good to catch up on the important work in this field originally started by the RCVS but now driven collaboratively by the joint effort between RCVS and AVMA through the Mind Matters International Initiative.

Between meetings and formal business it was great to take advantage of the extensive and varied programme of CE provided by AVMA to attendees. I was able to get updates on as diverse subjects as chicken diseases, Brucella canis and behavioural medicine as well of course my favourite subject veterinary dermatology.