Resident Training: Theory, Practice, and Opportunities for Wellbeing

The purpose of this session is to discuss resident training in veterinary medicine as a facet of clinical supervision, which has emerged as key component of wellbeing among the healthcare professions. Empiric research shows that clinical supervision yields numerous positive effects including improved patient outcomes, promotion of professional development, reduced burnout, and enhanced job satisfaction. A provisional definition of clinical supervision in veterinary medicine has been proposed by Guess et al (2020). This definition highlights crucial components of resident training that are often overlooked: “Clinical supervision represents the formal and informal provision by qualified veterinarians of professional, relationship-based, collaborative supervisee training that supports, directs, and guides the work of colleagues (supervisees) to enhance knowledge and skills, ensure quality control and ethical practice, and maintain wellbeing and resilience. The overall goal of this process is to enhance professional capabilities, ensure the best possible patient outcomes given available resources, and foster well-being, competence, and effectiveness for supervisors and supervisees.” This session will discuss and apply current literature on clinical supervision as relevant to specialty resident training. It will also highlight best practices, including the Proctor model, which delineates three domains in which clinical supervision may occur: the formative, normative, and restorative domains. Finally, this session will address emerging research on the ways in which resident training is conceptualized by veterinary clinical faculty and how this may be a missing link in improving resilience and wellbeing outcomes among both faculty and residents.