Small Animal Medicine

• Delegates attending from outside of Europe may require Visas in order to participate in our face to face programmes. Please note that the Student Tier 4 Visa is not applicable to Improve International delegates as a result of us being a private education provider. Further guidance on your entry requirements should be checked with your local embassy.
• Improve International does not provide support in obtaining Visas but can provide supporting documentation to support your application if requested.

The PgC is a university qualification which provides 60 academic credits. The qualification is positioned at Masters Level 7 within the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) framework for higher and further education. The 60 credits can be used towards achieving a Postgraduate Diploma (PgD) or Masters (MRes), which represent 120 credits and 180 credits respectively. The PgC is a recognised academic qualification which will demonstrate that you have achieved a certain standard in that subject.

All applicants must:

• Hold a veterinary qualification
• Have spent a minimum of one year in veterinary practice
• UK-based applicants must also be on the RCVS Home Practising Register, whilst applicants based outside the UK must hold a qualification that would entitle them to register as a member of the RCVS

Additionally, UK-based veterinary surgeons who qualified from 2007 onwards must have completed the RCVS Professional Development Phase (PDP) before they can enrol.

You can take up to 3 years to spread your taught modules.

Yes. Each PgC is a recognised higher education qualification as validated by Harper Adams University. The qualification represents Level 7 (Masters) within the QAA Framework for Higher Education Qualifications in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. It provides 60 transferable academic credits at this level. The qualifications are therefore, by definition, academically equivalent.

You are able to “upgrade” from a GPCert to a PgC within 5 years of the GPCert exam date. Please contact ISVPS for further information – ISVPS.

As a guide we suggest you consider the following when deciding whether you think the facilities and equipment and your role in the practice will support your studies:

The practice

• Number of patients, species distribution and range of conditions seen should allow student to gain experience across the whole syllabus during the study period
• Either a manual or computerised system of patient records, allowing accurate recording, storage and retrieval of information
• Facilities to hospitalise patients and arrangements for OOH care
• Equipment and facilities to conduct radiographic examinations and ultrasound should be available within the practice or on referral. Access to CT/MRI equipment is not a requirement
• Suitable equipment for administration of oxygen and safe maintenance of anaesthesia
• Disinfection and sterilisation procedures in place which are suitable for the work undertaken
• Medicines are stored, prescribed and dispensed appropriately.

Our Medicine and Surgery programmes are held at various locations in the UK; Swindon, Hatfield and Sheffield. We have excellent wet-lab facilities in Swindon and Sheffield, with state-of-the-art practical training equipment and technology.

Our Clinical Postgraduate Programmes are held at our Swindon and Sheffield training centres, see the individual programmes for venue information.

To find out more about our venues, click here: https://www.improveinternational.com/uk/venue/

Improve’s modular training programmes have been developed over a period of 20 years and are taught by world-renowned experts in their field.  They successfully blend theoretical lectures with hands-on practical sessions where appropriate and delegates also have access to valuable online learning components.

A PgC comprises 600 hours of notional study. This is typically made up of the following:

• 100 hours of taught sessions and ten hours of practical experience for Small Animal Medicine
• 70 hours of taught sessions and 48 hours of practical experience for Small Animal Surgery
• 82-94 hours preparing for and reflecting on the taught sessions. This includes pre and post course online evaluation and self-reflection
• 200 hours of independent study, including the preparation and writing of assignments
• 200 hours preparing for final examination

At the beginning of the programme, you will receive a syllabus and specific learning objectives for all of the taught modules.

During the programme, you will be required to document your current knowledge and skills prior to each module and undertake an informal short multiple-choice exercise. After the module, you will then undertake a further multiple choice exercise to reflect on the knowledge gained and implement a strategy to address any outstanding knowledge and skills gaps via independent study.

ISVPS provide the GPCert assessments and HAU provide the PgC assessments. The GPCert assessments include a case report and a final written examination including a multiple-choice question (MCQ) paper, an online applied knowledge paper, and a case-based scenario paper.

The PgC assessments include a case diary and a reflective essay.

Delegates studying towards a PgC in Cardiology, Dentistry and Oral Surgery, Dermatology, Diagnostic Imaging, Emergency Medicine & Surgery, Exotic Animal Practice, Endoscopy & Endosurgery, Feline Practice and Ophthalmology additionally undertake the distance learning Advanced Practitioner module with HAU which is assessed via a portfolio.

The final examination takes place yearly covering the course syllabus. You must have attended all modules to be entered for the final exam.

All delegates will receive a subscription to Harper Adam’s online e-library providing access to 1,000s of scientific articles and abstracts.

Medicine delegates will be provided with Improve International’s Manual of Small Animal Medicine Vol 1 and 2 and Surgery delegates with Improve International’s Manual of Small Animal Surgery Vol 1 and 2.

The Improve Learning Management System (LMS) provides access to a notes library, discussion forum and other study resources including webinars.

A dedicated Programme Tutor will support every individual during their PgC programme to ensure a rewarding and successful learning journey.

More information can be found on our Learning Support page.

ISVPS will provide support with assignments.

After you have successfully obtained your Postgraduate Certificate you can apply for the RCVS Advanced Practitioner Status. This is subject to meeting all of the other entry requirements set out by the RCVS in the Applicant Guidance Notes.

The following programmes are recognised PgCs enabling you to apply for the RCVS Advanced Practitioner Status:

Small Animal Medicine, Small Animal Surgery, Ophthalmology, Dermatology, Feline Practice, Exotic Animal Practice, Cardiology, Dentistry & Oral Surgery, Diagnostic Imaging and Emergency Medicine & Surgery.

* Currently the RCVS does not list Endoscopy & Endosurgery as a designated Advanced Practitioner subject so it is not possible to apply for the Advanced Practitioner Status. 

For Small Animal Medicine and Small Animal Surgery, there is an additional requirement for evidence of Professional Key Skills CPD, access to this will be provided at the end of your programme. There will be an additional fee to complete this with Harper Adams University, please contact us for more information.

For further information please see RCVS website.

Our PgC programmes are flexible to try to enable you to fit study in to busy practice life. With our Clinical PgCs, we have tried to ensure two modules are offered back-to-back for the duration of the course to reduce your travel time and costs and make the learning experience more immersive. With our Medicine and Surgery PgCs, these are run every month from 2-8pm, therefore reducing the amount of time out of practice.

No. We understand that you are busy professionals and aim to be as flexible as possible.

Whilst we need advance notice if you are going to be unable to attend a particular module, we will make every effort to find you an alternative venue and date. If the alternative dates don’t suit, you can attend the missed module when the programme runs the following year. The only restriction is that you need to attend all of the taught modules before you can sit the relevant ISVPS examination.

We have striven to make it as attractive as possible for people to bring dogs for scanning by offering a very generous £100 per dog ‘cashback’. This money is given as a bank transfer not as a discount to your practice off the course, or in vouchers (unless requested).

We have approached practices local to our venues and have mail dropped local residential areas seeking pets belonging to the general public and many of our staff allow their dogs to be scanned multiple times a week and month.

Ideally, we would like delegates to bring dogs with them – you are welcome to bring a friend or colleague’s dog so not owning one does not preclude earning the £100. We are happy to look after these dogs for you during the lectured component of the course and all of our venues are dog-friendly when overnight accommodation is required.

Some of the dogs (including our own staff dogs) are used very frequently due to our issues with supply. Some dogs just have an off day for no obvious reason. It benefits us hugely if these dogs have a positive experience during these courses so would politely remind all delegates that they deserve kind and patient handling at all times.

These dogs are not being scanned for any diagnostic purpose and consequently, it would be unethical to sedate them.

We are only able to provide dogs that are ‘normal’ for scanning courses since the scanning does not take place in a veterinary clinic with appropriate facilities. We believe that being able to accurately identify normal ultrasonographic appearance is the most important part of learning how to scan dogs with abnormalities.

We are very grateful to the owners of dogs who allow their dogs to be used. They are made aware of the benefit of clipping these dogs for scanning, but we cannot clip them without permission and sometimes have to choose between not accepting a dog for scanning where permission to clip has been denied and not having enough dogs for the scanning session. Many of the dogs who are return visitors have clipping declined on subsequent visits due to clipper rash after a previous visit. We find using plentiful amounts of water enabling the ultrasound gel to soak in by applying in advance allows non-clipped dogs to be used.

We consider it inappropriate to provide cats for ultrasound scanning due to the stress of transportation and restraint without sedation. We will not be providing live cats for any of our scanning courses/modules.