Setting a new standard for world-class veterinary education at Murdoch:  Global Accreditation 2009

Murdoch’s vision for the future is to offer a world-class veterinary education that prepares students to practice the highest standards of veterinary medicine anywhere in the world. 

We will achieve this by:

• Focusing on “quality over quantity”--Attracting the highest calibre of staff and students with small class sizes & staff/student ratios
• Investing in state-of-the-art facilities and equipment that prepare our students for the future of veterinary medicine and provide the highest quality veterinary care to our patients.
• Developing innovative educational initiatives that produce skilled veterinarians with strong technical and professional skills 

In the next 2 years, Murdoch will begin a major program of re-development which includes new diagnostic imaging facilities, building new surgical teaching facilities, upgrading our hospital and farm facilities and completing the implementation of a new 1 year science plus 5 year vet science curriculum.

This multi-year development goal is approaching its first milestone.  In September 2009, Murdoch will be the first Australian university to undergo “full global accreditation.”

Currently, vet schools must comply with different and sometimes competing national accreditation standards.  These different standards are being combined into a single “best practice” global standard, incorporating best practices from North America, the British Commonwealth and Australasia with accrediting bodies from Europe and South America also observing and contributing. 

As the first veterinary school to face the new global standard, Murdoch will have a significant opportunity to “raise the bar” for veterinary education in Australia.  Our work will establish new practices, programs and benchmarks for other veterinary schools based on “world-best practice.”

Our successes will provide models for others to incorporate into their own educational systems.  Achieving these goals will move us towards the next stages of our development which includes a long-term comprehensive plan including improved surgical teaching facilities, hospital and laboratory upgrades and other educational initiatives.

Providing world-class veterinary education will:

• Create a new generation of veterinarians that has high technical and professional skills and is able to practice anywhere in the world.
• Use international benchmarking to bring the best and most successful veterinary and business practices from around the world to an Australasian market.
• Support an increased culture of professionalism which educates its clients about the value of high quality veterinary care and delivers greater service. 

What support is needed for the accreditation programs?

Murdoch is “fast-tracking” key projects from our development plan to ensure that improvements are made prior to the accreditation program in September 2009. 

We are seeking support from leaders in the veterinary industry for the following items:

• Specific equipment and refurbishment
• animal mannequins 
• sheep, pig barn, and reproduction lab refurbishment
• New educational programs
• Teaching on the Run
• Veterinary Professional Life
• Animal Systems
• Accreditation Benchmarking
• reporting
• quality management
• accreditation assessments 

We are seeking projects sponsors for individual programs and equipment projects as well as to support the overall accreditation program.  With more than $3 million of improvements scheduled in the next year, we are inviting leaders to support our accreditation program.

Animal Mannequins:

Practice makes Perfect:  Mannequins help students learn before handling animals
The Murdoch University Veterinary Hospital is looking to purchase animal teaching mannequins to provide realistic teaching, practice, and assessment opportunities to veterinary students. Dean of the Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences School, Professor John Edwards, said the goal was to ensure that Murdoch’s veterinary graduates are ready to work with patients as soon as they graduate.
“This means providing them with a lot of hands-on experience while they are students,” Professor Edwards said. “These very life-like and sophisticated mannequins are similar to the human mannequins used in nursing and medical students teaching courses to provide a wide range of practical experiences.  Students need a significant amount of practice before they can work with live patients and our commitment to animal welfare means that we limit the use of other animals for teaching purposes.”
“By integrating a number of animal mannequins into our clinical teaching courses, we can use these tools to ensure that students are both confident and competent before proceeding with animal patients.”
Murdoch’s educational staff will be able to use the mannequins to demonstrate a wide-variety of treatment options and procedures and directly assess students’ clinical competence before they are given the opportunity to perform a procedure on an animal.  Students would also be able to regularly practice their skills on the mannequins to help build confidence. The cost of purchasing mannequins and developing teaching materials is $5000 each.  The Veterinary Trust invites individuals or groups to sponsor a cat or dog mannequin which will help thousands of students become better vets.

Production Animal Refurbishment:

Murdoch University School of Veterinary & Biomedical Sciences is the only Australian veterinary school which has its production animal facilities on-campus.  This offers some distinct advantages:  instructors are able to link theoretical and practical knowledge as part of production animal education, students have easy access to the production animal teaching herds to allow them greater opportunities for animal handling and self-study.

Our on-campus facilities (built in the 1970s) were state-of-the art at the time of its founding. As you are well aware, standards and practices in production animal industries have improved significantly since then.  Murdoch's facilities and equipment have not kept pace with new practices and technologies now seen as best practice in the industry.  For instance, new flooring materials have been developed which minimise injury to sheep and can be more easily cleaned therefore minimising biosecurity risks. Standards of animal welfare have also evolved in the past 30 years.  These include new standards about the design of facilities to minimise injury and stress on animals. It includes new ideas about the size of holding pens for both animal welfare and human safety. 

This includes approximately $115,000 of improvements to the sheep facilities, a new ultrasound machine and refurbishment of the reproduction laboratories. 

• Refurbish sheep facilities:  The sheep barn needs to be refloored with new gates and races to 1) replace 30-year old facilities with state-of-the-art materials and design 2) accommodate increasing student numbers while maintaining a safe learning environment 3) model best practice for animal welfare for future veterinarians.
• Remodel the reproduction laboratory  add airconditioning and section the lab into improved teaching lab facilities and equipment while maintaining a       higher/grade research/commercial lab.
• Portable ultrasound equipment:  Ultrasound is a widely used and supplants manual diagnosis by offering a trans-abdominal, non-invasive diagnosis of      pregnancy.  The investment in portable ultrasound will allow for this equipment to be used both in the hospital and at the on-campus farm.  

Teaching on the Run:

The Teaching on the Run program will help all participants teach skills in a clinical setting.  These workshops will be implemented across all staff in the Murdoch University Veterinary Hospital.  Several individuals will be selected to participate in a Train-the-Trainer program to enable the School to continue training in this area. 

Additionally, the Teaching on the Run program will also be offered to veterinarians participating in Murdoch's extra-mural student placements. We hope that this program will encourage more veterinarians to host student placements and improve all students' experience during placements.  Finally, we are grateful for the support of the many veterinarians that host student placements and that this free educational training will help them in sharing their skills with their employees and colleagues.  We have already begun piloting this program but need your help to make it available to all Murdoch staff and veterinarians to participate.

Veterinary Professional Life:

Many people become vets because they care for animals but are unprepared for the stresses of the profession which include running a business, dealing with clients and co-workers and the emotional, personal  and psychological impacts of a caring profession.  Murdoch believes that we must prepare students to succeed both professionally and personally and has developed a unique program (Veterinary Professional Life) to meet these needs.  Veterinarians need to develop the personal and self-management skills which will ensure good communications with clients and co-workers.

As students progress through their veterinary education, the focus of veterinary professional life shifts from Leadership and Life Skills to Critical Inquiry to Communication and Professional Development.

VPL1:  With an orientation course, weekly seminars and formative self-management exercises, students focus on self-awareness, career opportunities and professionalism.  Relevant speakers from industry are invited to present career information at the conference or seminars.

VPL2: As part of a 3-day residential camp, students will learn self-management skills such as personality and leadership styles, emotional intelligence, communication and teamwork exercises like learning to give and accept constructive feedback.  Practicing veterinarians will be invited to attend the workshop as guests, facilitators and leaders. Back at University, students attend weekly seminars and complete assignments reflecting on teamwork and communications during the extra-mural (work-place learning) experiences.

VPL3:    Students will gain leadership, organisation, teamwork and communication skills by organising a student conference which builds on the idea of on-going scientific research and diagnostic problem-solving from their farm experiences.  Activities within this will include creating a budget, working with industry partners  and presenting at the conference.

VPL4:  Students analyse non-technical skills (as well as technical skills) learned from clinical experience and engage in scenario-based client simulations.  Students will also begin weekly seminars themed around practice-oriented professional skills (such as understanding finances, legal and ethical requirements, business principles and practice management).

VPL5:  Students will begin their transition to practice by reflecting on professional, scientific and business skills gained through rotations and practicing key competencies in communication, consultation skills, business and practice management principles.  A professional development day held in conjunction with other practitioners is planned.  Students will be encouraged to continue professional development in the AVA New Graduate Support Scheme.

Veterinary Professional Life is an innovative new program that teaches important business, professional and life skills that will help students succeed as veterinarians.

Past Appeals:

In 2002 the Veterinary Trust held an Appeal to raise funds to support our efforts to gain American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA) accreditation. This appeal successfully raised nearly $60,000.

In April 2003, the veterinary school was granted AVMA accreditation. Murdoch University is the first Australian veterinary school to achieve this accreditation. This opens up new career opportunities for our students, through the automatic recognition of their degree in the United States and Canada. Armed with their veterinary qualifications from Murdoch University, our graduates can now work throughout North America, as well as in Australia, the United Kingdom and Malaysia. This success is attributable to the hard work of the veterinary school staff and students and the support provided by the donations to the AVMA Appeal.

The Trust would like to acknowledge and thank all who contributed to this campaign.

Donations were at the following levels: