FAQs

You can contact the Education Department at the RCVS on 020 7202 0791 or email [email protected].

You should review your CPD needs regularly and plan ahead so that you can make the most of development opportunities as they arise. Planning ahead will also enable you to take part in more cost-effective and focused activities, rather than attending seminars or other events ad hoc, and then finding that they perhaps did not meet your needs.

If you take part in an appraisal process at work, this will help you to identify areas you need to concentrate on, and should also provide you with an auditable record of your agreed development plans and activities.

Remember that undertaking CPD is not just about attending courses - it's about continuing your professional learning in whatever way best helps you to maintain your competence and helps you to improve the professional service you provide.

If you are using the online Professional Development Record, you can use the “My Development Plan” section to set your objectives, define your criteria for measuring success, make notes on the actions you propose to take to meet your goals, and describe how you intend to implement your plans.

The question is often asked about how interns working in hospital clinics or in specialist referral practices can undertake the PDP. To complete the PDP, graduates will need involvement with first opinion cases, and will also need to have primary responsibility for the clinical decision, which is one of the main competences that need to be developed during the PDP. Interns may be able to complete some of the PDP Competences, but they have to accept that they may need to go into general practice for a period of time to complete the rest of their experience. Institutions and specialist practices employing interns should make it clear that interns may not be able to complete their PDP there because of limited exposure to a varied workload, or because they may not have primary responsibility for their cases. 

Universities and other institutions may need to review their internships, and should be encouraged to distinguish in adverts between ‘PDP-conforming internships’ (ie those that would provide the intern with the range of experience and level of responsibility needed to complete PDP) and ‘PDP non-conforming internships’. This would help to provide greater transparency for new graduates.

Similarly, PhD and other research students will probably not be able to complete their PDP until they go into clinical practice at a later date. However, they may be able to record some skills if they are undertaking some part-time clinical work. 

The EPA focuses on evidence-based veterinary medicine, looking at wider information resources, and asking you to reflect on the quality of the evidence given and if it is applicable to the clinical situation that you are dealing with.

It is asking you to show that you know when and how to get further evidence or assistance and what questions to ask, and encourages a habit of lifelong learning and reflection.

Registration of veterinary practice premises builds on the existing registration of practices under the RCVS Practice Standards Scheme (PSS). Those practice premises which are PSS-accredited pay an annual fee already, which provides for the annual registration of the practice’s premises.

There’s no reason why interns can’t adapt the existing EPAs and/or design their own Entrustable Professional Activity (EPA) around an internship, as it is still clinical practice. Our bank of EPAs will cover the majority of situations; there will be areas that aren’t covered and so we will support VetGDP Advisers and graduates in developing an EPA if required.

The VetGDP is a completely new programme and very different from the PDP. Following an evaluation of the PDP with graduates and other stakeholders, it was clear that the PDP was not achieving the levels of support needed by new graduates to help them develop their skills and confidence. Meaningful, holistic support was needed, to reflect the everyday work as a vet in all branches of the profession. 

The VetGDP also emphasises building graduates’ confidence and resilience, and supporting reflection.

1CPD is available in app format for iOS (download from the App Store) and Android (download from Google Play). 

It is also available as a web version if you can't or prefer not to use the app. 

Click the ‘My Account’ button in the top right-hand corner of this website. In order to login you must use the username and password, which were sent to you as part of your last annual renewal.

The first time you log in you will be asked to choose a security question and provide its answer.

In your profile page you will be able to change your password as frequently as you wish.

Please note your username is not case sensitive and will always appear in capitals, regardless of how it is typed in. Your password however is case sensitive.

The password we provided you with is in upper case. However, if you change your password to something more memorable you will need to decide whether you want it in upper or lower case. If the case doesn’t match you won’t be able to log in.

The VetGDP training is available through the RCVS Academy.

You will log in using the same details as for your My Account and 1CPD. If you have forgotten your password, you can reset it from the log in page. Please note that the username is CASE SENSITIVE.