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By Dr Daisy May, MRCVS BVSc, VetPrac
As a rule, vets are good at planning when it’s not personal. Referring the German Shepherd to gastroenterology. Keeping reasonably meticulous (if you’ll excuse the questionable spelling when rushed) clinical notes. Determining the most sensible order in which to conduct the morning’s ops.
But with CPD, it’s all too easy to spend the year in perpetual freefall, stumbling into the arms of an eclectic lucky dip of courses. In some cases, the only non-negotiable criterion may even have been that the course was available when neither the clinic nor your personal life was actively on fire.
With no clinical compass to guide you, it’s easy for CPD funds to drift – as if autonomous – towards whatever is convenient, bizarrely fascinating (like that one beekeeping course the practice manager wouldn’t approve) or currently discounted. Instead, your budget should be pulling its weight. It ought to be supporting the learning that makes the biggest difference to your clinical knowledge, practical skills, confidence, career progression or the services your practice can provide.
If you’d like to pinpoint the weaker spots where your CPD budget could make the biggest day-to-day difference, the answer is intuitive (but also benefits from being pointed out): This week, why not try out a simple seven day case audit?
This means creating your own personal learning plan based on the most representative sample you have at your disposal: your own caseload.
The patients, procedures and conversations from your last working week can reveal where your CPD budget is likely to do the most work. The clues are already there – potentially panting, hissing or thoughtfully providing an ambiguous blood result.
Or just plain pissing on the table. For once fortuitous, since you wanted urinalysis.
Let your patients be your very own personal learning needs assessment tool. There’s no better time to start than now.
Grab a notebook, or rob a piece of paper from the printer when reception are busy taking payments. Keep it in your consult room, along with (probably) a new pen every day. Note: it’s inevitable this will pass between regions of the clinic in the manner of opening and closing pen-sized wormholes.
As you progress through your working week, make a note of the cases that slow you down, cause hesitation, googling, or frank (yet expertly disguised) panic.
What patients sent you looking for a colleague or followed you home in your head? What cases joined you uninvited on the sofa that evening, when you were trying to watch Netflix?
Concise bullet points work perfectly, for example:
Or maybe you relate more to:
These moments show where more knowledge, hands-on ability, steadier decision-making or a more structured approach could make an immediate difference. You may be surprised by the areas that come up for you.
After all, we aren’t always consciously aware of which gaps are the ones that quietly abscond with the biggest bounty of our precious time.
At the end of the week, look back over your diary (or scribbled collection of abbreviations). Categorise the cases and tally them up. This might look something like:
Gastro: IIII
Cardiac: II
Dental: II
Ophthalmology: IIII
Tricky anaesthetic: I
Then for your main problem areas – in this case, gastro and eye cases – see if you can pinpoint more precisely what you struggled with.
1. What happened?
Vomiting dog – unsure of best order of tests
Couldn’t remember characteristics of uveitis
Eye exam felt really scattered and incomplete
2. What was the sticking point?
Was the sticking point in your head (knowledge gap), your hands (practice needed), or your decision-making framework?
3. What did it cost?
Time, stress, a delayed decision, another team member’s help, a clunky client experience?
4. Is it likely to happen again?
Tomorrow, next month or only when Honeysuckle Peters (and the notorious Mrs Peters) return?
5. What might help?
A course, workshop, mentoring, protocol review, equipment change, team discussion?
The aim is to spot patterns, not produce literature. A few words are fine.
Triage what deserves a slice of your budget, and aim to keep the slice relative to the degree of the gap. Tallied up six urogenital cases and three dentals? Consider spending twice the time on urogenital; here’s where your caseload is waving a larger flag.
‘After this CPD, I want to be able to…’
Take good dental radiographs
or;
Get better at managing blocked cats
or;
Learn cherry eye op
….and so on, and so forth.
A specific outcome makes it easier to choose the right format, judge the level and decide afterwards whether the investment helped – informing future budget distribution, too.
It also protects against shiny-course syndrome: the urge to book something fascinating that has almost no relationship to your role, equipment, caseload or foreseeable future. Yes, we are referring again to the beekeeping course, as well as ‘Supporting the health and fertility of Salmo Salar (the Atlantic Salmon)’.
And remember: your CE plan doesn’t need to proverbially fertilise every room-for-growth area at once. Pick one or two recurring problems that are immediately important, trainable and likely to cross your path again.
Your last week of cases has probably already told you what these are.
Margie is the Director of VetPrac and a globally respected veterinary anaesthetist, dedicated to practical, inclusive, and human-centred veterinary education. She began her career in general practice across Australia and the UK, grounding her teaching in real-world clinical experience. Specialising in anaesthesia and analgesia, Margie earned Membership of the Australian and New Zealand College of Veterinary Scientists, completed a residency at Cornell University (USA), and became a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Anesthesia and Analgesia. Her academic roles in the USA and Australia have focused on veterinary education, communication, and skills training. Since 2019, Margie has led VetPrac, delivering hands-on workshops and online courses that continue to inspire lifelong learning for veterinarians, nurses, and technicians.
Connect with Dr Margie:
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