College Fellow and Director of Studies for Veterinary Medicine has been appointed Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Education from the 1 October 2019
College Fellow and Director of Studies for Veterinary Medicine, Dr Jackie Brearley has been appointed Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Education from the 1st of October 2019. As a result she has resigned from her Senior Lectureship in Veterinary Anaesthesia in which, for the past 4 years, she has been tasked with developing the clinical skills centre at the Cambridge Veterinary School. This new appointment gives a name to this role but also extends it to cover all the clinical skills facilities at the Vet School.
She said: “I find this very exciting and thoroughly enjoy developing the practical learning experience for the clinical vets in their first 2 clinical years. These facilities have been highlighted as extremely beneficial to the education of the students by the accrediting body the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons and by the recent scoping committee of the American Veterinary Medical Association who recommend to the AVMA education committee whether the Vet School is suitable to have an AVMA accrediting visitation. If we are successful in getting AVMA accreditation, our students will be eligible to work in North America and conversely the course may attract American students to study here. This could be increased applications from North America and with the proximity of Lucy Cavendish both to the preclinical lecture site and the Department of Veterinary medicine, the college would be very attractive to these applicants.”
The Department of Veterinary Medicine has an international reputation as a centre of excellence, and is performing world class veterinary research. A major strength of the Cambridge course is the extensive use of practical teaching and the emphasis on small-group teaching from Year 1. Their staff includes world leaders in their field and the facilities include state-of-the-art equipment, a five-theatre small animal surgical suite, an equine surgical suite, an active ambulatory farm animal unit, a diagnostic unit, a superb post-mortem unit, all available for students during their clinical studies, and a Clinical Skills Centre that’s available to students in all years. They also have one of Europe’s leading cancer therapy units with a linear accelerator for delivering radiotherapy.
About Dr Brearley:
Originally from Yorkshire, Jackie graduated in 1983 as a veterinary surgeon from the University of Cambridge. After a brief period as a House Surgeon at the University of Glasgow, she trained in veterinary anaesthesia under Professor Ron Jones at Liverpool University. In 1986, she gained the RCVS Diploma in Veterinary Anaesthesia and started a PhD training looking at the 'Aspects of the Stress Response in Cattle' with particular reference to anaesthesia. During this time at Liverpool, Jackie did regular locums in small animal and equine practices. In 1990, she was awarded the PhD and moved to East Anglia to work as a Clinical Anaesthetist at the Animal Health Trust (AHT), Newmarket, with Dr Polly Taylor. In 1993 Jackie became Assistant Head of the Centre for Small Animal Studies at the AHT. Dr Brearley moved to the University of Cambridge in September 2006, where she is now University Senior Lecturer in Veterinary Education, Director of Studies for Clinical Veterinary Medicine and Fellow of Lucy Cavendish College.