Hi! I’m Lauren, owner and founder of The Bolus Club. Welcome to my first blog! This marks the beginning of something I’ve been building towards for a long time.
The idea for this platform grew out of my own journey into specialisation, where I developed an insatiable curiosity for learning. I was never quite satisfied with “that’s how we’ve always done it” and instead found myself drawn into the world of evidence-based medicine—questioning, exploring, and rethinking how we care for our patients.
Along the way, I realised something important. While the subject matter needed to spark my interest, it was the people and the way they taught that truly held my attention and kept me coming back for more. That’s where real learning happened.
And it led me to a simple question: how could I create that same experience for others?
There’s a moment most veterinary professionals will recognise…
You’re sitting in a CPD session. The speaker is clearly knowledgeable, the topic is genuinely interesting… and yet, you’re not really fully listening. Instead, you’re frantically trying to capture every word on the slide before it disappears. When you refer back to your notes, you’re met with a blur of half-sentences and bullet points, and by the end of the session, you’re left with pages of writing—but only a fraction of the learning.
I have lived this experience for many years, and this realisation was the starting point for building The Bolus Club CPD platform.
Rethinking How We Learn
Traditional CPD often assumes that more writing equals more value. Lengthy sessions, content-heavy slides, more information. But in reality, that approach can work against learning rather than for it.
When we’re forced to split our attention between listening and writing, something has to give, and unfortunately, it’s usually comprehension. We leave sessions with notes, but without clarity. With plenty of information, but without applicable insight. It became clear that what the profession needed wasn’t just more CPD. It needed CPD designed with actual human brains (and how they work!) in mind!
This platform is built on a simple idea: what if you could fully engage with the speaker without worrying about capturing everything?
No more racing against the next slide.
No more writing in place of thinking.
No more leaving sessions feeling like you missed the point.
Instead, sessions are designed to be short, focused, and genuinely engaging—so you can concentrate on understanding, not transcribing.
By providing supporting notes after each session, The Bolus Club allows you to revisit key concepts, reinforce learning, and reflect at your own pace. Learning becomes something you absorb, not something you scramble to record.
Inspired by the Pomodoro Technique
One of my key inspirations behind this approach is the Pomodoro Technique—a time management method built around short, focused bursts of work followed by breaks, and it has something I have utilised to achieve many projects in my career.
While traditionally applied to productivity, its principles translate powerfully to education. Attention is not infinite. Cognitive load matters. Shorter, “punchy” sessions respect how our brains process information.
By breaking CPD into manageable segments, we create space for:
- sustained attention
- better retention
- reduced mental fatigue
Instead of endurance-based learning, this becomes high-quality learning, along with (hopefully!) a positive feeling of accomplishment that inspires embarking on further learning!
The Power of Narrative Medicine
Another core influence I have come across in recent years is narrative medicine—the use of storytelling, clinical scenarios, and patient journeys to teach medical concepts.
Because veterinary medicine isn’t just a collection of facts, it’s a lived experience. It’s decision-making under pressure. It’s real patients, real owners, and real outcomes. Every session I teach has been drawn from a patient I have cared for who embodied the concepts and learning outcomes defined in the session.
When learning is anchored in stories, concepts become more memorable, context becomes clearer and clinical reasoning becomes more intuitive.
A case isn’t just a case—it’s a narrative journey. And through that narrative, complex ideas become easier to understand and apply in practice.
From Passive to Active Learning
This platform isn’t about passively sitting through lectures. It’s about creating an environment where learning feels natural, engaging, and relevant.
You listen.
You think.
You connect ideas.
And then, afterwards, you revisit structured notes that reinforce and deepen what you’ve learned—without the pressure of capturing it all in real time.
A Better Way Forward
Veterinary professionals are busy. Time is limited. Attention is valuable. And CPD should respect that.
By focusing on clarity over volume, engagement over endurance, and understanding over notetaking, this platform aims to offer something different: CPD that actually works with the way we learn. Because the goal was never just to provide more education. It was to make it meaningful.
At its heart, The Bolus Club exists to build a community of lifelong learners, where CPD isn’t a chore you have to do, but something you genuinely want to be part of.
