According to NICE (2015), ‘case scenarios are an educational resource used for individual or group learning’, encouraging students to ‘improve knowledge of the systems and processes involved in medicine and their applications in practice’. Simulation-based medical education allows trainees to learn from mistakes without causing harm, enhances clinical competence, and forms part of the NHS Improvement programme.

Similar opportunities are lacking in veterinary medicine. CasePALs aims to collate a bank of real-life clinical veterinary case-based scenarios, accessible by all veterinary students, with three objectives:

1. To expose students to case scenarios with high fidelity to reality.
2. To encourage self- and peer-to-peer learning by empowering final year students to select the ‘case of the week’, based on cases they feel offer particular educational benefits. This will be an anonymised real case from the hospitals/clinics, chosen based on existing small group teaching discussions, and moderated by senior clinicians before transfer to the website. The current client consent form gives consent for the use of clinical information for this purpose. Each scenario will include background information and a series of questions to be considered before referring to the multimedia answers, allowing students to ‘manage’ the patient from presentation to discharge.
3. To encourage participation of all year groups, allowing clinical scenarios to be embedded in the teaching curriculum from day 1. Each week, the previous case will be filed in an accessible bank according to discipline (eg. cardiology, orthopaedics) and difficulty (easy, moderate, difficult), allowing case selection based on the body system being studied, or the year of study.

What are the student benefits of CasePALs?

CasePALs offers multifaceted benefit to veterinary students, including:

1. Early access to real-life clinical scenarios. Preclinical students can analysis a case selected according to the body system being taught, bringing the classroom curriculum literally ‘to life’ and embedding the relevance of the taught material. For students in later years, this facility may serve as a learning and then revision tool in preparation for clinical years and OSCE examinations. Following graduation, continued engagement will provide ongoing education to new graduates.

2. Peer-led education, which is superior to conventional learning in medical education (Allikmets et al 2016). Giving students responsibility for teaching enhances leadership, presentation and organisational skills, which are key transferable skills in clinical practice. The ‘case of the week’ will be reviewed by a senior clinician, which exposes the students and tutor to giving and receiving feedback, improving confidence and learning. Finally, clinical students have more recently undertaken the preclinical course and therefore when choosing cases aimed at preclinical years, may select more relevant cases to augment the course.

3. Positive contribution towards mental health. Kogan (2005) reported high levels of stress in veterinary students moving into practical/professional areas; Armitage-Chan (2019) found that feeling inferior to peers when diagnosing and solving a case is contributing to mental health issues in vets. This website would encourage discussion of real case scenarios from day 1 of the undergraduate course, which may make the transition from the classroom to the hospital less stressful. Uniquely, the educational experience can be tailored according to learning preferences: the student can ‘manage’ as many cases as desired, select specific types of cases, and use a group or individual approach. This may reduce worries relating to inferiority.