Analysis of the training needs of veterinary surgeons of Kerala for continuing veterinary education

Abstract

The objective of the study was to identify the training needs of veterinary surgeons of Kerala for continuing veterinary education. The data were collected from 130 veterinary surgeons of the Animal Husbandry Department of Kerala. Questionnaires were used for data collection. The training need was not seen dependent on any of the socio-personal characteristics of the respondents, viz., age, sex, marital status, type of family, educational qualification, professional experience, number of children, age of the youngest child, location of residence, distance to work place, number of seminars, symposiums etc., attended, number of professional journals read, number of periodicals read and number of trainings attended. Zoo and wild life was the most preferred general subject matter domain for training among the nine studied. This was followed by information technology, medicine, surgery, extension, livestock products technology, obstetrics and gynaecology, professional management and animal production in the descending order of preference. The most preferred specific subject matter areas were management of domesticated elephants, using computer in

office, modern diagnostic procedures, small animal surgery, modern extension teaching methods, quality assurance of meat and meat products, embryo transfer technology, service rules and regulations and breeding and management of pet animals. The training programmes being organised by the various organisations such as KAU, IMG, KLDB, IVRI and CVE programmes proposed by Veterinary Council of India were found to be either highly relevant or relevant and hence these programmes might form part of eVE programme. The findings of task analysis pertaining to veterinary practice indicated the importance of incorporating in the training curriculum both the theoretical and practical aspects of management of mastitis, administration of medicines, clinical examination of animals, udder and teat surgery, post operative care, treatment of fracture, artificial insemination in cattle, handling of frozen semen, pregnancy diagnosis in cattle, maintenance of laboratory equipments, . faecal examination and examination of milk samples. The study further indicated the strategies to be adopted In organising the CVE programmes. An institutional mode of training was preferred to either distance learning or a combination of both in the case of major domains viz., veterinary science, animal production, live stock products technology, zoo and wild life, and information technology whereas distance learning was the preference

In the case of extension and professional management. Trainers from outside the parent organisation were preferred while organising training programmes. The venue of training preferred was institutes within the state in the case of short-term training and those outside the state in the case of long-term training. The preferred periodicity of a short-term training was a year or less than a year while that for a long-term training was more than a year. The preferred duration of a short term training leading to a certificate was 15 days and that leading to a diploma was 90 days.