Clinical Skills
Requirements for assessment
When assessing Clinical Skills, we are assessing competency in performance of the role, which is earned through depth and breadth of experience. This section outlines the minimum experience requirements that we require for application for assessment.
Required experience for application
To apply for your first assessment, your case log book (see details below) must demonstrate that you have fully led at each stage of the consultation process, on at least 20 cases from beginning to end. These 20 cases need to have taken after pre-certification and within the 24 months prior to your assessment.
The stages of the typical consultation process, to which we are referring, are shown here:
The performance criteria against which we assess an applicant are very specific - they are documented here.
In practice, although we set a minimum criterion of 20 complete cases, we find that, in order to pass the assessment, the majority of our applicants shadow and lead on significantly more than 20 cases before applying.
As you work towards assessment following pre-certification, you should record all your cases in a ‘Case Log’ and record all the behavioural presentations you personally addressed in a ‘Presentations Summary’.
Documentation of clinical experience: Case Log and Presentations Summary
The Case Log is a single Word or Excel file in which you record all the cases you have been involved in, for all the species you have seen. You can download an example here. You can include cases in which you observed another practitioner lead, and cases in which you were mentored by a more experienced practitioner. Your role and level of involvement must be noted for each case. When you submit your application for assessment, your submitted Case Log should include all the cases you have seen in the 24-month period (no more) prior to your date of application.
Whereas all the cases you have seen, for all species, in the last 24 months, should be listed in your Case Log, in the Presentation Summary, we are interested in the behaviours presented in:
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the cases that you personally led
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the species for which you are applying
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The last 12 months only
The Presentations Summary demonstrates the breadth of behaviours that you have worked on in the last 12 months. You can download an example here. You need to have led on all the essential behaviour presentations listed below, for the species for which you are applying. You also need knowledge of, even if you have not led on, all the non-essential behaviour presentations. During your assessment you could be asked about any of the behaviour presentations listed for the species for which you are applying, i.e. both essential non-essential.
If an individual case presented with more than one behaviour problem e.g. aggression towards people and house soiling, and you actively addressed both problems in your behaviour modification plan, then that case can be counted for both those problems and therefore counted twice in your Presentations Summary.
Essential behaviour presentations:
Non-essential behaviour presentations:
All case documentation that you submit to us must be fully redacted, to comply with UK GDPR. This means that all personally identifiable information has been removed. Personally identifiable information includes, but may not be limited to, for both clients, vets, and any other professionals involved: names, addresses, logos, email addresses, telephone numbers, identifiable photographs, identifiable geographical locations (e.g. parks), and pet microchip numbers. For more information about your responsibilities under the UK GDPR, please review the Information Commisioner’s Office (ICO) website.