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Connecting Vets & Vet Students around the World to Educational Opportunities in Aquatic Veterinary Medicine

Reaching out to veterinarians and veterinary students around the world with information about opportunities to get involved with aquatic veterinary medicine, has become a priority for the World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association. With the increasing demand for aquatic veterinarians to provide service to clients, aquaculture industries, public aquaria, government agencies, more and more veterinary students, and veterinarians already in practice, are looking for opportunities to increase their aquatic veterinary knowledge and skills, and get into networks with others in this field. To help with this effort, several WAVMA members took the opportunity to link with the organizers of the NOVICE Conference in Bucharest, Romania (October 4 - 5, 2012) and develop an Aquatic Veterinary Education Programme for attendees from numerous countries in Europe and around the World.

The motivation for WAVMA was simple – using a powerful tool to inform a targeted group of veterinarians, veterinary students and veterinary educators about aquatic veterinary medicine. Started in 2010, NOVICE (a Network Of Veterinary Information & Communication Technology in Education programme, supported with EU funds), has developed Web 2.0 tools for lifelong learning and a strong international veterinary online community. Leading up to the Conference, with the assistance of several NOVICE administrators and conference organizers, WAVMA developed and tested initial webpages within the NOVICE project website – one for WAVMA members, and one to communicate with almost 3,000 student, veterinarian and educator NOVICE members from around the world. Their appeal and utility were immediately obvious.

To deliver presentations for the workshops for Aquatic Veterinary Education Programme, WAVMA drew on members, some of whom traveled to Romania from as far afield as the USA and Japan, while others prepared recorded audio-visual presentations – all focused on aquatic veterinary education and networking. The WAVMA team that attended the conference, including David Scarfe, Laura Urdes, Dušan Pali?, Chris Walster, Mohamed Faisal and Devon Dublin, also provided a “mini booth” exhibit where conference participants could watch videos about aquatic veterinary medicine, or pick up informational items and brochures.

Organized under two themes, “Supplementing Veterinary Curricula & CEPD with Aquatic Veterinary Medicine” and “Promoting Aquatic Vet Education through NOVICE & Other Social Media”, the selection of presentation topics fitted the NOVICE Conference objectives perfectly, and drew a number of the 100 plus attendees, stimulating good discussions. Because of strong encouragement to carry these messages to other NOVICE members unable to attend the conference, WAVMA is planning to upload videos of the following presentation videos on the NOVICE (www.noviceproject.eu) and WAVMA websites (www.WAVMA.org):

  • “International Approaches to Expanding Aquatic Veterinary Educational and day-One Competency(David Scarfe)
  • “WAVMA Aquatic Veterinary Day-One Competency Program”(Dušan Pali?)
  • "Aquatic Veterinary Board Certification & Specialization Programs”(Richmond Loh)
  • “Encouraging Aquatic Courses in Veterinary School Curricula”(Greg Lewbart)
  • “Promoting Aquatic Vet Education through NOVICE & Other Social Media”(Laura Urde?)
  • “Michigan State University On-line Fish Health Management Course”(Mohamed Faisal)
  • “Using NOVICE and Other Social Media to Promote Aquatic Veterinary Medicine”(Devon Dublin)
  • “WAVMA WebCEPD (Webinars) for Global Aquatic Veterinary Education”(Chris Walster)

All in all, discussion provided WAVMA, NOVICE and the attendees with important information on identifying future directions and needs for use in NOVICE, social media and other web-based platforms useful for expanding aquatic veterinary education. These are going to be very useful as WAVMA and others develop programmes for supplementation in veterinary schools, and for developing Continuing Education and  Professional Development in aquatic veterinary

In addition, the WAVMA team met separately with the NOVICE project administrators and began planning strategies for 2013 to possibly utilize the NOVICE platform for introducing members to WAVMA Aquatic Vet Medicine Training Programmes. Of strong interest during the discussions were the WAVMA Aquatic Vet WebCEPD Programmes, where students and practicing veterinarians can participate in educational webinars, and receive CEPD credit useful for veterinary re-licensure/registration to practice, and other purposes. In addition, preliminary discussions indicated a strong interest in opening the new WAVMA Cert-AqVP Programme (a programme that identifies core subject matter necessary for Day-one competency in aquatic veterinary medicine, and certifies individuals that have attained the necessary knowledge, skills and experience) to NOVICE members in 2013.

There is no question that both the efforts of WAVMA to support the NOVICE programme and conference were extremely fruitful, so stay tuned for more developments in 2013.

Thanks to: Drs A. David Scarfe & Laura D. Urdes

The World Aquatic Veterinary Medical Association