RCVS Academy Update - July 2025

Stay on track with your CPD – the RCVS Academy can help

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) is a fundamental responsibility as a veterinary surgeon or veterinary nurse. It demonstrates a commitment to lifelong learning and ensures you remain up to date with the latest knowledge, skills, and best practice. The RCVS monitors CPD compliance via the 1CPD platform, and the RCVS Academy is here to support you in not only meeting your requirements but also making your CPD meaningful and beneficial to your day-to-day work. 

If you're new to the CPD process as a new graduate or newly registered veterinary nurse, returning to the profession, or simply looking to refine how you approach your learning, we recommend completing the Academy’s 'CPD: Record and reflect' course. This short, practical course explains how to plan your learning, undertake CPD activities, and record and reflect on what you’ve learned in line with RCVS requirements. For those returning to the profession, we recommend completing the ‘Vet return’ and ‘Nurse return’ courses. 

The Academy offers a growing platform of free, flexible online courses that you can complete at your own pace. Recently launched courses include: 

• Communicating cost – Understand your role in effectively communicating veterinary treatment costs to clients 
• Vet return – Supporting veterinary surgeons returning to clinical practice after a break 
• Civility fundamentals - Learn the value of workplace civility and the impact of incivility on others and patient safety 
• Mentorship - Develop your mentoring skills to help others thrive in the workplace 
• SVN: RCVS & me - Supporting you with your professional responsibilities and relationship with the RCVS as a student veterinary nurse 
• Updated content for the 'Clinical supervisor', 'Working in the UK for veterinary surgeons' and 'Unconscious bias' courses 
• Course re-launch for 'RVN Starting out'

In addition to these, the Academy is currently developing several new courses, including the following topics: 

• Mental health for managers and leaders 
• Suicide awareness in the veterinary profession 
• Advertising and social media in veterinary practice 
• Appointed senior veterinary surgeon implementation 
• Support for practices hosting overseas-qualified vets undertaking 'seeing practice' placements 

For those who enjoy real-time interaction and discussion, 'Academy Live' provides a valuable opportunity to engage directly with subject matter experts and fellow professionals. We’ve already held many successful sessions this summer, and upcoming events include: 

• 18 September 2025, 13:00 – ‘VetGDP graduate induction’ with Jenny Soreskog-Turp and Britta Crawford 
• 24 September 2025, 13:00 – ‘Communicating cost’ with Gemma Kingswell 
   

Further information about these events, along with registration details, can be found on the RCVS events page.

To discover the full range of learning opportunities currently available, we invite you to browse the new RCVS Academy brochure. 

All Academy courses are freely available and can be accessed by logging in with your MyAccount credentials at academy.rcvs.org.uk.     

If you have any questions or feedback, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the Academy team at [email protected].