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Staff training, continuing development and clinical governance

Professional development, clinical library and ISFM membership

To have a Cat Friendly Clinic it is important that all clinical staff maintain and update their knowledge on clinical matters. This is why a continuing professional development (CPD) requirement is made in the Cat Friendly Clinic criteria.

Having a suitable in-clinic library of up to date books and journals for both vets and nurses is an important part of providing CPD, and the feline content should at least reflect the case-load of the clinic. ISFM provides a veterinary nurse/technician membership (free of charge) with a dedicated online journal (accessible to all members free of charge) [see: nurses/techs membership].

Additionally, Clinic Membership of ISFM is required for clinics accrediting under the Cat Friendly Clinic programme [see: ISFM Practice Membership]. This is very cost effective as it includes many membership benefits (such as monthly webinars, a discussion forum space, access to congress recordings etc.).

Clinical governance

Good clinical governance involves efforts to continually improve patient services and outcomes. This is partly achieved through keeping up to date with clinical developments, but should also involve critically assessing the outcome of patients and being able to discuss cases and treatment options with colleagues and peers.

In a large clinic, this may be at least partly achieved by regular and formal discussions between veterinarians within the clinic, but this alone can be limiting. Having an opportunity to discuss cases with other colleagues (outside the clinic) is also important.

All ISFM members have access to the ISFM Forum, which is a friendly on-line forum designed for exactly this purpose – colleagues can share problems, difficulties and solutions to clinical issues, and advice can be sought from other vets all over the world.