2022 Graduate and VetGDP Adviser Surveys
About this report
This report was generated based on the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) Education Outcomes Data from
Graduates and Advisers received in 2023. It was generated from the full redacted data provided by the RCVS for the
purposes of additional analyses for quality improvement and processed via the R(D)SVS app.
More information about the app can be found here
This data was collected by the RCVS, and the R(D)SVS app has no input into question formation or data collection.
Graduates respond to the RCVS survey prior to setting up their personal e-portfolio. Advisers were matched with
graduates to act as a mentor and asked to complete the survey approximately 6 weeks after the graduate had started their
programme to allow time for skills to be assessed. Advisers worked only with 2022 graduates.
The majority of questions within the survey are presented in the following format:
How well prepared was the graduate to [conduct skill] at the point of graduation?
1. (Not at all prepared)
2.
3.
4.
5. (Completely prepared)
There are 105 clinical skill related questions and 14 professional skill related questions. Graduates were also asked to rate
their overall confidence to work independently when starting their first role on a scale from 1 (Not at all confident) to 5
(Extremely confident).
Adviser and Graduate Role
While it is possible for advisers and graduates to work in a range of areas,
the graduates first roles and the adviser areas in your data are presented below.
Frequency and proportion of adviser area
Frequency and proportion of graduate first role
Non applicable responses
Within the adviser data there is a large number of 'Not Applicable' responses to the 105 questions asking about the graduate's
preparedness to practice a given clinical skill. It is expected that the Not Applicable adviser responses come from advisers who
were not able to assess the graduate on a skill, either because they worked wholly within Small Animal practice, or perhaps because
they did not feel able to assess the graduate on this skill for another reason. For some questions, the majority of advisers were
not able to rate their graduates
Frequency of NA responses across advisers and graduates.
Note, graduates unlikely to record an 'NA' response for any question
Graduate Data
Graduate gender, age, ethnicity and disability states were self-reported and as below.
Graduate ethnicity
Graduate disability recording
Graduates were asked to rate their confidence from 1 (Not at all confident) to 5 (Extremely confident) to work independently
when they started their first role:
Graduate's rating of their own confidence at start of employment
Adviser Data
Adviser age, gender, and their position were provided.
Comparisons of Grad vs Adviser Perspectives
It may be useful to explore where there were differences between the adviser and graduate ratings of preparedness. Note, as previously mentioned, we cannot determine whether these differences are a consistent disagreement between advisers and graduates, or whether it is a large disagreement in a select number of cases.
Additionally, please note that there are a number of 'NA' responses for advisers. These are not pictured here, please refer to the table above for a note of how many NA responses are contained within each category.
History taking (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Examinations (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Prioritise a differential diagnosis (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Treatment planning (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Emergencies (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Surgery (pre-op prep) (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Surgery (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Surgery (post op care) (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Anaesthesia (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Post-mortem (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Preventative healthcare plans (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Basic epidemiological investigations (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Animal handling (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Evaluating evidence (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Professional skills and attributes required for independent practice (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))
Professional skills and attributes at the point of graduation (1 (Not at all prepared), 5 (Completely prepared))