Veterinary and veterinary nursing students at the Royal Veterinary College (RVC) took part in the first-ever pilot event at the Hawkshead Campus exploring emotional intelligence within interprofessional teams, known as interPOD (inter-Professional Orientation and Development).
Professional Orientation and Development (POD) programmes at the RVC use experiential learning principles to explore emotional intelligence (EI). The profession-specific PODs primarily explore the first three quadrants of EI (self-awareness, self-management and social awareness) to better understand how to recognise and modify emotions and behaviours in the workplace. InterPOD follows on from this with further study of the fourth quadrant: relational competence, including topics such as teamwork, leadership, culture, building trust and hierarchy.
Students took part in interactive talks, led by guest speaker and clinical psychologist Dr Jim Alvarez, and were tasked with small group activities including creating paper chains one-handed, brainstorming topics such as ‘what makes a good leader’, and solving a murder mystery. The final activity of the day brought together what participants had learned in a veterinary scenario. In total, eight veterinary nursing students from their second year and 21 veterinary students from their fourth year attended.
Speaking about the event, a student at the RVC, said:
“The interPOD day has been one of my best learning experiences as a vet student. We need more of these sessions!”
interPOD was funded by an RVC LIVE Team Development Prize, awarded to Dr Tierney Kinnison, Lecturer in Veterinary Education, Rachel Lumbis, Lecturer in Veterinary Nursing and Course Director, Dr Mandi De Mestre, Reader in Reproductive Immunology and Dr Jackie Cardwell, Associate Professor in Epidemiology.