Dear Colleagues,
My name is Chris Daborn and I am currently working as an independent veterinary consultant with a specific interest and experience in the performance of veterinary services, in line with OIE standards, and the development of continuing veterinary education delivered within a formal, veterinary statutory body guided / regulated, “Continuing Professional Development” [CPD] programme
Thank you for registering me to the PPR-GREN discussion which I have been following with great interest. I note that the purpose of this first session is to “identify the key positive and negative factors influencing global, regional and national PPR control today and how these can either be built upon to advantage or resolved”.
A factor that can have both positive and negative elements is the state of PPR knowledge and skills of the frontline workers and those immediately responsible for their management and direction. Positive where the worker has current, relevant and accurate information, negative where he/she does not. I would like to suggest that within the plan for PPR-GREN there is a continuing veterinary education / professional development programme – which targets to update the knowledge and skills of all frontline workers and those immediately responsible for their management and direction.
When I started my career as a vet in Africa, some 40 years ago now, I carried with me a blue hard backed book produced by the Centre for Tropical Veterinary Medicine (CTVM) titled “Handbook of Animal Diseases in the Tropics”. In those early days getting a phone call from my district veterinary office in the north of Malawi to ask colleagues in HQ for advice could take up to two weeks, and of course in the field we had no communications at all. In these circumstances the CTVM handbook was often my only ready reference and consequently much used. Subsequent editions of the “handbook” have enlarged its size and softened its cover so that it no longer works as a field reference and sits on my book-shelf rather than in my pocket.
One very promising development of the Commonwealth Veterinary Association CPD programme, with which I am involved, is the piloting of a hard covered 7” tablet [slightly smaller than the original CTVM handbook] that contains not just learning materials for CPD purposes, but is also a ready reference to the latest and most current veterinary information; a portal to discussion forums / social media; and everything else the magic Android powered world of Google apps can bring. Just as the CTVM brand is under active consideration for re-launch by the University of Edinburgh, I would like to think that the old and much respected CTVM handbook is also about to be reborn - in a smart and field useable e-format!
One valuable information resource that we are in the process of putting on the tablet, with an open source commons licence agreement, is the extracted data sheet for PPR from the CABI Animal Health and Production Compendium [AHPC]. This will be supported by a wealth of companion information I collected in the process of producing the PPR extract, inclusive of weblinks to other invaluable knowledge hubs available at FAO, OIE, FVS Onderstepoort [AfriVIP launches 18th Feb] and CFSPH Iowa.
In countries like Kenya, where CPD is now a mandatory requirement for all registered veterinarians and veterinary paraprofessionals – there is a real opportunity to ensure colleagues engagement with updated learning materials and to assess their uptake and understanding of such knowledge. Equally, through the CPD process, that we suggest should largely be mentored by subject matter specialists [SMS], there is an extremely valuable opportunity to capture and internalise for policy purposes, field views and experience creating a truly interactive, multi-level, multi-stakeholder e-networking platform. Would such a concept be of interest and good for implementation within the PPR-GEN plan?
(I am sure it would. Moderator)
Dr Chris Daborn
TA CVA CPD Programme
OIE Accredited PVS and Gap Analysis Expert
TVS Ltd PO Box 2403 - 00621, Nairobi, Kenya
+254 715 907962 / skype: chris.daborn
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http://www.commonwealthvetassoc.org/CPD.html
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