Literature Review CAT
The second of two summative CAT's (Continual Assessment Task) I was assigned during BVMS1 was a scientific literature review on the physiological, pharmacological, and technical factors affecting the efficiency of embryo transfer in sheep.
Reflective Commentary
During the Spring of my first year at University of Glasgow, I completed a literature review for one of our summative assignments for the year. My essay title was “Review of the Physiological, Pharmacological and Technical Factors Affecting the Efficiency of Embryo Transfer in Sheep”. I put a lot of effort into this assignment, and I was satisfied with the A5 mark I earned on it.
I think that part of the reason I did so well on my literature review is that I had the opportunity to practice writing scientific review-style essays for a class I took as part of my previous degree. The class was focused on ruminant nutrition, however it was also designed to satisfy a writing element required by the university for Animal Science students. I had an assignment that required me to write a one-page paper with no less than five peer-reviewed sources to answer questions about a case scenario involving ruminant nutrition. We repeated the assignment several times with different topics over the course of the semester. This assignment was initially very difficult, but it got easier as I learned to write concisely and with a specific focus, as well as how to summarize an article without plagiarizing it accidentally. Writing in any form is especially difficult for me, so having this experience before coming to vet school was incredibly helpful. I am confident that I would have struggled to write my review had I not been able to draw from my experience with this style of writing in my previous degree.
I also realize that I was lucky to be assigned a topic that I was very interested in. My classmates and I discussed our assignments with each other while we were in the process of completing them, and several of my friends felt that their assignment was made more difficult by their lack of interest in the topic they were given. Because I already enjoyed large animal medicine, including theriogenology, I had no problem getting engrossed in the research process for writing my review. I even had previous experience with bovine embryo transfer from my dairy EMS placement – one where I got to watch the vet flush a donor cow and package the eggs she produced for transfer. This context helped me develop my understanding of the practical challenges surrounding the embryo transfer process before I even started my assignment, and my interest in large animal medicine increased my motivation to work on it.
While I am satisfied with the mark I earned on this assignment, it wasn’t perfect. According to my assessor’s feedback, I made a mistake in my in-text citation where I ordered the authors alphabetically instead of by year their work was published. I was also advised that I could have focused more on how the age and parity of the donor and recipient ewes impact the efficiency of the embryo transfer process. Ironically, I found this information during my research for my paper, but I had trouble fitting it in with the word count and the way I approached the “Physiological Factors” section of my review. I think my paper turned out well, but I also agree with the constructive feedback I was given.
Even though I struggle with my writing skills, and I don’t particularly enjoy writing assignments, I appreciate the opportunity to work on my writing and to practice my research literacy skills. I consider both to be important skills to have as a veterinarian, especially for practicing evidence-based medicine. Now, a year after I finished this assignment, when I reread my literature review, it serves as a reminder of what I am capable of when I work hard and of how far I’ve come in my professional development since I started my college career.
Intended Learning Outcomes Satisfied
1. Communications – This assignment caused me to practice my written communication skills with a scientific focus. I wrote my paper clearly and concisely, I made an effort to reference my sources appropriately, and I touched on the relevance of my topic in sheep farming systems.
2. Independent and Collaborative Learning – This project was focused on independent learning, as I researched my topic and wrote the literature review entirely on my own. My classmates and I also spent some time together collaborating on how we were approaching the assignment.
5. Clinical Skills – Part of my review touched on the technical factors affecting embryo transfer in sheep, so I spent some time researching the appropriate method of flushing, transferring, and inseminating the embryos. I learned quite a bit about laparoscopic embryo transfer and artificial insemination in ewes as a result.
6. Scientific Foundation - The nature of a scientific literature review made writing one very science-focused. I researched embryo transfer in sheep using peer-reviewed articles and International Embryo Transfer Society (IETS) data, and I used the information I found to investigate the ways that physiology, pharmacology, and technology affect embryo transfer in sheep as the assignment required.
7. Research Questions - I used scientific evidence from several research papers to build my review of the current factors affecting embryo transfer in sheep. I made a lot of effort to understand the research articles I found and to integrate them as evidence to support my position.
8. Animal Body Systems – To fully understand the research articles I was reading in order to include them in my paper, I had to understand the anatomy, physiology and common breeding practices of sheep. As my topic was on embryo transfer, I particularly focused on the reproductive axis of sheep.
10. Ethics and Welfare – Because embryo transfer can be particularly invasive in sheep, the ethics behind carrying out the procedures involved should be called into question. Laparoscopy and hormone synchronization can negatively affect the welfare of sheep, so the necessity of these procedures should be considered when discussing the factors that affect the efficiency of the process.
11. Pathology – Included in my review is a series of photographs illustrating the anatomical changes that happen to the ewe’s ovaries when she undergoes superovulation. The ewes that respond well develop multiple follicles, where the ones that don’t will only develop a few. This change can be used to estimate how successful the flush may be.
13. Pharmacology – A section of my review was on pharmacology specifically. I learned about the common drugs used in synchronization and superovulation protocols for sheep embryo transfer to be able to understand the current research on how well they worked.
17. The Veterinary Practice – As embryo transfer can be quite invasive in sheep, there is commonly a veterinary role in the process. Laparoscopy and other invasive procedures are performed by a veterinarian, and the vet that performs these procedures should have a full understanding of the entire embryo transfer process.
Documentary Evidence
Attached are my Literature Review and staff feedback.