A PSA registrant must have an approved Primary Supervisor before they may begin to engage in the practice of veterinary medicine in BC. A Primary Supervisor may also designate other registrants at the practice to be approved to act as Additional Supervisors.
Eligibility Criteria:
Every supervisor (whether Primary or Additional) must:
not have any real, potential or perceived conflict of interest that would interfere with the supervision and/or objective evaluation of the PSA registrant.
Additionally, a Primary Supervisor must also:
have been a full registrant in the Private Practice class of registration with the CVBC for a minimum of 3 years out of the 5 years immediately prior to signing the supervisor agreement.
Each supervisor must enter into a signed agreement with the CVBC to undertake the responsibilities of acting as a supervisor to the PSA registrant. Agreement forms are submitted (by email) to the CVBC Registrar’s Office for review and approval. The PSA must not begin to practice under the proposed supervisor’s supervision until official notice of the Registrar’s approval has been received.
The Primary Supervisor must complete a formal assessment of the PSA registrant on a quarterly basis. This assessment must be reviewed with the PSA registrant, signed by both parties, and submitted to the Registrar’s office by the deadline relayed by the office.
A PSA registrant must always be under direct supervision when practicing veterinary medicine. If there is more than one approved supervisor (Primary plus X Additional Supervisors), then the Primary Supervisor must supervise for a minimum of 60% of the PSA’s total practice time during each assessment period. Delegation of supervisory responsibilities to the Additional Supervisors cannot exceed a combined total of 40% of the PSA’s total practice time each quarter. When there are multiple approved supervisors, one supervisor must always be formally identified as the responsible supervisor on any given shift so that everyone involved understands who is responsible that day, and for accurate tracking of supervision hours for the quarterly reports.
What if there is more than one PSA working at a practice with the same supervisor(s)?
There must always be a 1:1 ratio of Supervisor: PSA on any given shift. For example, if there are 2 PSAs working the same (or overlapping) shifts, there must be two approved supervisors present (each designated to supervise one of the PSAs for that shift).
The requirements and responsibilities of PSA supervisors are set out in more detail in the CVBC bylaws (Part 2, section 2.1(30) & (31), and section 2.8(A)) and in the Registration Committee’s Policy, “Requirements of a Primary Supervisor to a Provisional Supervised Active (PSA) Registrant”. All participants involved in PSA supervision relationships must familiarize themselves with these materials.
