How to easily accomplish your veterinary CPD targets

Running a small animal practice is a tiring job. After 20 years as a vet, I was getting sick of going to evening veterinaryCPD meetings after a long day at the surgery. Most of the courses were at least 30 – 60 minutes away from my practice. I would arrive at the meeting eat a few sandwiches, try to get something useful out of the lecture without falling asleep; chat to colleagues in the bar for half an hour then drive home and fall into bed. I was struggling to do the 35 hours necessary for the practice standards and resenting the fact it would take me 3 hours total time (including travelling) to gain 1 hour veterinary CPD.

A day of veterinaryCPD costs £300 – 400 not counting the lost revenue in the practice(£300-400) when I was away plus the locum fee(£250). Petrol is also sky- rocketing in price. How much did it cost you when you last filled up your car? A day of veterinaryCPD will, therefore, cost nearly £1000 and you will need 5 such days to fulfil your obligation(£5000 in total).

I decided last year to find a better solution and I went away for a weekend to learn about new methods of internet communication. One such method is via webinar- something which you have just subscribed to. A webinar is a lecture given over the internet. You see the powerpoint presentation and hear the presenter but you do not see them. I really saw the potential in this method of communication. My eyes opened! I could see how this would make learning so much more easy and fun. www.thewebinarvet.com was born! Our first veterinary webinar was in early March, 2010 on pruritus in dogs and cats given by myself. Since then we have given over 60 veterinary webinars on varied subjects such as diabetes, hip dysplasia, radiography, corneal disease, practice management, interpretation of ECG. Several hundreds have attended single veterinary webinars. Vets and nurses love the experience!

Wouldn’t it be great, if you could do all the veterinary CPD in the comfort of your own home. After a long day at the surgery you could go home, play with the kids, eat dinner, get them to bed and then go to the study for1 hour and finish for the night, 1 hour of veterinary CPD would take 1 hour to acquire. That dream is now a reality and not following an on-line course but participating via polls and surveys in a live interactive lecture. Life has become very hectic but my live veterinarywebinar on a Thursday night takes all the stress out of learning making it a very pleasurable experience

Since March 2010, I have probably attended nearly 100 hours of veterinary CPD and I’m really enjoying it. All of thisveterinary CPD makes me a better vet! The veterinarywebinars are all given at a very practical level so that each vet can take away 2-3 things which they will do differently in their practice.

An annual individual gold membership costsmuch less than a weekend of veterinaryCPD and it’s even cheaper if the practice joins. The webinar vet’s membership night is Thursday.

We guarantee at least 40 hours of veterinary webinars on a Thursday between 9 and 10pm. We want you to get into the habit of attending these so that you will fulfil your CPD requirements. I truly believe that this is the new way of doing CPD

It’s interactive

It’s convenient

It’s fantastic value

It’s a stress-free way of learning

It’s the way of the future

However, as well as the members’ night there are radiology reading classes (small extra fee for members); and many free veterinary webinars sponsored by food & pharmaceutical companies. Members are told about these meetings first( there is no reason you should miss out on these).

Here are a list of membership benefits:

Thursday evening webinar invites

Priority notice on sponsored veterinary webinars

Full access to veterinary webinar archive

Monthly CD to listen to in the car

Monthly newsletter with interesting clinical information

Free entry to Facebook page

Regular repeats of veterinarywebinars using our webinator technology.