Open Letter to RCVS and RDSVS

To the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies and the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons

Re: 7 April 2020 Update on Temporary suspension of EMS regulations, to support veterinary students during the Covid-19 pandemic:

 

As a first year GEP student at RDSVS, I am disappointed that a stronger stance on pausing pre-clinical EMS has not yet been taken by RCVS or RDSVS. The farming industry may continue to operate, but it is dismissive of student health and safety that pre-clinical EMS should carry on or be made up in full. The veterinary profession is supposed to exemplify excellence in biosecurity and One Health, yet pre-clinical students' health is not being prioritized. Every classmate that I have spoken to regarding continuing EMS has not done so out of a simple desire to volunteer, but out of a combination of guilt for canceling placements, fear of falling behind on EMS requirements, and concern over being forced to make up EMS later. This is a major communication and policy failing from both RCVS and RDSVS. We were told when classes were first canceled that skipping spring EMS would not negatively impact us later, but we have received multiple updates on how to proceed with seeking and completing placements. EMS should have been actively discouraged once classes were canceled, or at the latest when the lockdown was instated in the UK. Now, this most recent update implies that pre-clinical students will need to make up missed weeks because we are "less impacted" even though the peak of the pandemic is yet to come and the starting date of the upcoming school year could very much be in question.

 

It is unacceptable for student health to be risked like this over a pre-clinical work experience requirement. About four weeks ago I surveyed my classmates' concerns with health and safety issues related to COVID-19. I also created a petition (www.change.org/makeEMSsafe as a way to organize all of our concerns and to measure student support of proposed changes to pre-clinical EMS, however, I was not taken seriously by RDSVS faculty and upper class students openly chastised me on the RDSVS student facebook page for sharing this petition and having these concerns. To those who have pointed out to me that EMS should not be of concern right now, I agree with you, which is precisely why we need EMS to be firmly addressed. Many GEPs and first years, myself included, do not truly feel seen or heard by anyone at this time and it is crucial that we are. My original suggestions for changes to pre-clinical EMS requirements still apply to our current situation and desperately need to be considered. I've outlined them here, but would request that the original petition is read for more information:

• Reopening EMS exemptions and eliminating the cap on how many weeks we are allowed to have exempt. This would lessen the pressure on students to make up requirements in an abbreviated time frame.
• Expanding the time period exemptions are allowed from one year prior to the start of classes to encompassing a student's lifetime of experience. This is especially considering plenty of us have previous degrees and careers that cannot be reflected in as short a time span such as one year prior.  
• Eliminating the requirement for 2 weeks of free choice and making this optional. With less time to complete pre-clinical EMS, free choice should not be mandatory. 
• Offer short EMS placements on school owned or affiliated farms to small groups of students during the summer. This would ensure that we get some working exposure while minimizing disease risk due to unnecessary travel.

I plan to update the petition and push for more signatures, including non-student signatures. The only key change I intend to make to these suggestions is to change the wording of the last bullet point to reflect uncertainty of conditions being safe for EMS-related activities as early as this summer. I also plan to add that given the severity of the pandemic, large dispersal of students, and projections regarding both pandemic duration and hospitals approaching ventilator capacity that any two-week requirements for pre-clinical placements should be reduced to one week. 

 

I understand completely that everyone at RDSVS and RCVS has been doing their best to scramble and figure out how to proceed. I am appreciative of the work that has been done so far, but I don't believe that the seriousness or impact of this pandemic can be understated. Students' voices need to be heard and our input on programme policies that affect both our education and our lives should be valued. Given how both the UK and US governments have handled pandemic procedures, particularly the US where a large amount of the student body is from, RDSVS and RCVS need to go further than the current minimalist government guidance in order to put students first. We need cautious policies that keep all years of students' health and well-beings in mind. GEPs (and pre-clinical students in general) have had our foundational studies deeply disrupted, which will impact our ability to build upon our pre-clinical foundation in later clinical years. To say our disruption is less than other years is false and minimizes the severity of what we are all dealing with. While some of us may have previous careers and experiences that make us qualified to help farmers during the pandemic, no one should be desperately seeking EMS placements due to fear of falling behind as I have been seeing students do. Helping farmers needs to be on a completely voluntary basis and RCVS policies should reflect this— actively discourage students from seeking EMS as academically unnecessary and cancel EMS on the grounds of personal/public health risk until the peak of the pandemic has well passed and it is truly safe to continue. 

 

I am not a formal class representative and I do not represent the opinions of my entire class, but I truly have my colleagues' health and best interests in mind. I believe these changes are vital and would vastly improve student health and safety. I implore RCVS and RDSVS to consider them seriously and make changes for us sooner than later.

 

Respectfully,

Victoria Fairman

RDSVS Class of 2023