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| Drs Brian McErlean, Cathy Warburton and Helen Jones-Fairnie at the Wellness Centre. |
Do you enjoy conferences, or do you sometimes find
yourself conferenced out? The Australian Veterinary Association annual
conference has wound down, and while I enjoyed every minute I found myself a
bit tired afterwards.
Then came the profound insight from a colleague: “You
paid attention in lectures, didn’t you?”
Ahhh, yes. Though I am glad I did – the program was
amazing and I’ll be sharing some highlights over the coming weeks.
Conferences are exhausting for the same reasons they are
awesome – they’re highly concentrated, over-stimulating, sensory-overloading
events. Every fifty metres I ran into someone I’d not seen for ages and engaged
in amazing discussions. And then there were sessions, plenaries and workshops.
For me there were a couple of little havens to recharge.
One was the Wellness Centre, where the trusty volunteers who know how important
well-being is for our profession provide a space where you can learn more about
managing anxiety and depression, undertake a simple health check, look at
photos and artworks created by vets and just have a no-stress natter with
someone who’s been there, done that or knows someone who has.
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| The friendly invigilators from the Australian Veterinary Boards Council were present to ensure the exams were conducted appropriately and that candidates went into the draw for a nice bottle of wine. |
The other is the Australian Veterinary Boards Council examination
room. I know. Exams. Aren’t they meant to be super stressful? Sure, if your
performance is being assessed. But if it’s about validating questions for those
undertaking our national veterinary examination, and its anonymous, AND you can
take a cup of tea and lunch in, AND there’s no time limit, AND it’s just a
quiet, spacious room where you have your own little desk with free stationary,
then it’s actually a picnic. Plus for each of the five papers you do
(approximately 20 minutes each), you can earn a continuing professional
development point as you’re allowed to check your answers and provide feedback
about the questions. This is and has been one of my favourite stands in the
exhibition hall. And maybe it’s a good way to desensitise people around exams.
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| This is me re-enacting the exam. Note the peace and quiet. NB the answers on the sheet are for a different paper, and I didn't score 100 per cent so zooming in won't help if you're looking for clues! |
I think that veterinarians in practice as well as
academia should be allowed to submit multiple choice questions as part of
continuing professional development. As a student I had no idea how involved
MCQ writing can be, but now that I’ve done it I realise how much of an effort
it is – and how much research can be involved – in constructing a fair,
appropriate MCQ.
It must be time for me to
- a) make a cup of tea
- b) walk Phil
- c) feed the cats
- d) all of the above
- e) pyometra
