Following on from last week’s tips for new graduates, here are my final two tips that resonate the most with me in my practice and as a coach. I hope they help with transitioning into practice.
Systematic approach
In my role as a mentor and coach, one of the most important concepts I instil or emphasise is a systematic approach. Develop a step-by-step process that allows you to look at everything – it’s not only important for finding abnormalities, but it’s the only way you will get used to what looks and feels normal.
This applies to physical examinations, ultrasound, radiograph and laboratory result interpretation, even when developing a diagnostic pathway.
Some may think this is only for new graduates, but it is still crucial for experienced vets who rely on a pattern matching approach, as they can miss diseases by not considering other possibilities.
Be coachable
Some people, once they have graduated, want to prove themselves and demonstrate they know it all, they are not just another grad and have earned their place.
In my experience as a coach and mentor, a humble graduate is more valuable and will learn faster than the ones trying to prove themselves and showing they don’t need support. It is actually concerning for me when new vets don’t ask for help or advice.
Asking for help isn’t a sign of weakness or lack of knowledge; for me it’s a positive sign that someone is open, wants to be at their best and wants to be part of the team. It gives me real satisfaction to see graduates do things they never thought they could do. So, work together with your team of nurses and experienced vets, and never stop learning and asking for advice or guidance.
The veterinary world is a profession I am proud of, and super passionate about – I cannot wait to see the future of this profession, and the impact every new graduate will make.
A date I will never forget is 6 June. Four years previously on that day I completed the final exam of my master’s degree, marking 11 long and tough years of study.
I vowed at that point to never study again, although my love of learning didn’t allow that to last long.
Then it was crunch and career decision time – which, for a new graduate, is exciting, but also causes anxiety.
I have learned a great deal in my time since, so for all those students who recently completed their studies, firstly, congratulations and, secondly, over the next two weeks I have some tips that will help with the transition into being a new grad.
Finding your first clinic
Does the clinic you are considering working for offer an appropriate mentoring and structured learning?
Don’t put too much pressure on yourself to find the best fit and perfect place, or overthink the process – you are just starting out and it’s likely your focus, passion and direction will change as your career progresses.
Merits in waiting exist for a practice that fits with your wants and needs, but don’t wait forever as you need to start putting your theory into practice.
I think the most important aspect to look at is the team. A practice with an amazing supportive team would be a wiser option compared to a practice with all the bells and whistles.
The next thing would be do they offer an appropriate level of mentoring and structured learning?
Ask if they have trained vets and new grads before, and do they have training and learning resources available to guide your learning?
Perspective
Days will occur where you make mistakes and feel as though you haven’t done a good job. It’s important to be able to put things into perspective – remember, everyone makes mistakes.
I still have days where I feel like I’ve failed. It’s vital you can be clear that you may fail at a task or moment, but that doesn’t mean you’re a failure.
If you have a bad morning, don’t generalise it into a bad day or bad week. It shows much more passion, talent and character to learn and grow from a mistake.
Being a vet – especially in emergency – you have to learn to be able to stop, let go and reset a number of times each day so you are fully present for what comes next.
Understanding perspective on bad days, and asking what can you learn from this, is a skill that takes time to master, but is one that will help you a great deal in your veterinary journey.
Nothing hits you quite as hard as reality, as you walk out of your final fifth year veterinary exam.
Up until this very moment, your life has followed a structured timetable, carefully planned by the veterinary school. Now, with it all finished, who is there to lead you from here onwards? This is probably the most daunting question every final year vet student faces. University lecturers can only help you get so far, then you’re on your own.
Forging your own path
For those of us who are lucky enough to know exactly what they want in life, the path is quite clear. As the saying goes, “where there is a will, there is a way” – and it doesn’t get more true than that, for the rest the path is unclear, and there is uncertainty and doubt.
In this post I share my thoughts about the three main options that for new graduates: general practice, rotation internships and emergency internships.
General practice
Great at putting the last five or six years of learning into perspective, it will solidify what you have learned.
After one to two years you will have something to fall back on if you decide to try something else later.
You will have primary case control this will allow you to develop and fine tune your communication, medical and surgical skills.
The more remote the general practice, the likelihood you will be required to perform more advanced or complex diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures increases; therefore, the learning curve will be steeper.
Generally, this is a good place to start, especially if you are uncertain as to what direction you want to head in. I started here. My only caveat is that you select a practice you feel best suits you and offers the best environment for learning.
Rotating internships at specialist hospitals/referral centres
Gerardo Poli during his graduation.
Some new graduates go straight into rotating internships because of the opportunity to see a variety of cases and also because they wish to proceed down the pathway to specialisation.
Generally limited primary case responsibility as you will be following and assisting a specialist or registrar.
Offers the best exposure and foot in the door for a career as a specialist.
Exposure to a wide variety of complicated cases.
Opportunity to be involved in and possibly perform complex diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures.
Build connections and network within the specialist or referral community.
Most only last one year before a new pool of interns come through.
If you have experienced general practice and you know it is not for you then a rotating internship at a specialist referral hospital will allow you to get a taste of what is available.
Emergency internships
I do not generally recommend emergency internships to new graduates, despite the fact I have developed training programs to assist in the transition into emergency and critical care. There are large emergency practices part of a specialist referral centres and small centres running within a general practice hospital, but not all emergency hospitals offer internships.
Before deciding, here is what you need to know:
It has t best opportunity for a softer entry into an emergency career.
Generally prior experience is recommended as it can be a very steep learning curve.
The abnormal hours can be isolating socially and adjusting sleeping patterns can be difficult.
Most emergency internships are designed to retain interns not rotate them through, such as they “train to keep”.
You will get primary case control and exposure to more critically ill patients.
Depending on the type of practice and the arrangement you may get to perform more complex diagnostic, medical and surgical procedures as opposed to referring them to the associated specialist service.
If you are looking at a career in emergency I would recommend a larger hospital where multiple vets are on at the same time and you have the support you need.
Regardless of where you find yourself, the most important thing to realise is you have to start somewhere. Decide and take action. If you find yourself doing something you don’t like then you have learned what you don’t want to do. That is a valuable learning experience in itself. There are many ways to a destination, and no experience, whether it is good or bad, it is never wasted. Even in the darkest of days, remember, with every closed door, if you are looking another will open. Best of luck with all your future endeavours.
According to PDSA [PDSA Animal Wellbeing (PAW) Report 2022], rabbits are the third most popular pet in the UK behind dogs and cats. With an estimated 1.1 million pet rabbits in the country, that’s about about a tenth of the population of pet dogs and cats, which hover around the 9 to 10 million mark.
So, if the pet ratio of dogs/cats:rabbits is 10:1, why isn’t this reflected in our teaching? Despite rabbit populations being endemic to the UK for more than a thousand years, they always seem to get lumped with guinea pigs and the cold-blooded pets like lizards and corn snakes when it comes to textbooks or university curriculums.
I can confidently say my education on rabbit physiology and medicine has been dramatically less than 10% of what I’ve received for small animal medicine. Perhaps this is why many vets, especially new or recent graduates, feel more confident handing off any rabbit patients to the resident “expert” of the practice or even referring to an exotics specialist, rather than seeing it themselves.
Accessibility
It’s a sad truth that the less convenient education and health care are to access, the less people will reach for them. By extension, the less veterinary practices that advertise care for rabbits (and other exotics), the less rabbits are likely to be registered at a practice and receive regular preventive care.
For example, as a native to the land of Kent, I only know of two or three practices that would call themselves “exotic specialists” and I know that, for a lot of rabbit owners, traveling half way across the county to visit one of these few practices would not be practical or plausible. Perhaps this is why, according to PDSA reports, at least 11% of pet rabbits receive no preventive health care, including vaccinations.
Rabbits are a social species that has evolved to live in groups, not alone.
Education
The value of a veterinary consultation is not simply to talk through clinical signs or address a flea outbreak in the home, it’s a chance for owners to discuss management issues or to ask for general advice. When rabbits aren’t brought in for routine consultations, then discussions about their diet, husbandry and behavioural needs don’t get to be had.
Some vets are already worried that the development of an annual rabbit haemorrhagic disease (RHD) booster rather than biannual is going to dramatically reduce rabbit welfare by halving the number of times these pets receive a clinical exam.
Welfare
Of course, like all “exotics”, there’s the argument to be made as to whether these animals are suitable pets in the first place. Personally, I feel that this is a moot point for the time being.
The fact that more than 50% of pet rabbits are housed by themselves with no companionship speaks volumes about the lack of knowledge the general public possesses on how to care for these animals. However, with more than a million of them currently out there, they’re not going away anytime soon.
The best we can do as professionals is educate our clients so welfare can be maximised as much as possible… and that starts with educating ourselves. I hope that in the near future the landscape of the veterinary degree can shift to better reflect the current demand for exotic vets – or at least rabbit vets.
From the moment you decide to become a vet, the road before you – from the start to the end of your course – is paved with decisions.
From where to go, to what to look for in a job (although vet students do get to put off the dreaded entrance into the “real world” for a couple more years than the average student), the next choice to be made is always around the corner.
Where to study
When it comes to picking the right veterinary degree, my opinion (which is by no means gospel) is that it’s:
10% course content
90% location, location, location
For students having a tough time choosing where to attend vet school (although, understandably, most are happy to go anywhere they receive an offer), it can be important to look above and beyond the curriculum. After all, the veterinary course in the UK is heavily standardised and, as much as every school wants you to believe that theirs has something special that nobody else’s does (and maybe they do), at the end of the day, you will leave each university with the same qualifications.
I’m not studying where I am today because I fell in love with Bristol vet school, I fell in love with Bristol itself.
I still remember getting off the coach with my dad for an open day and having the biggest smile on my face from the moment I stepped on to the cobbled streets. To this day, I’ve no idea why – perhaps it’s the multi-coloured Balamory-esque buildings, or the accents and calls of “my lover” that made me feel like I’d stumbled into a remake of Hot Fuzz, or maybe it’s the fact there are sheep and cows roaming just a stone’s throw away from the clinical campus.
Whatever it was, it wasn’t the labs, the course brochures or the lecture theatres…
For some, staying closer to home is what’s important; maybe for childcare, financial or emotional support. For others, moving away from what is familiar and stepping out of your comfort zone can play a vital part in learning independence and gaining a wider perspective.
What to study
Selective/elective weeks, while only making up a small component of your final year, are a rare opportunity to tailor your education in what is otherwise a very nationally homogenised learning infrastructure.
Work experience is another excellent outlet through which vet students can customise their teaching opportunities and prioritise what is most important to them. Practices where we feel most immediately at home are the ones that reflect our values around the profession, and the teams and individuals we bounce off easily are often indicative of the type of professional that you would/aspire to be.
Where to work
With the average retention of a veterinary professional standing depressingly at just seven short years, there’s been a massive drive from the ground up to improve the quality of the profession, and to make the career more mentally and emotionally sustainable.
We’re taught about developing resilience and mindfulness from the first year of vet school, and in the past half-decade, four-day weeks have become the standard for a lot of vets up and down the country.
With vets in such high demand, new graduates currently have a plethora of jobs to choose from. Considerations over commute times, staff retention, caseloads, OOH work, and weekend rotas (let alone salaries) are now luxuries that are becoming more and more affordable.
I would personally love to see a day when vet students can take modules in their final year – and with mixed practices decreasing in number, there may eventually be separate institutions for small animal and large animal vets.
As somebody soon to be entering the job market, I can tell you that decision paralysis is most certainly real, but I still believe that the more choices we are able to make, and the more control we have over our careers, will make us better and happier professionals.
Despite that all COVID-19 restrictions are due to be removed as early as the end of the month, the long-term impacts of this pandemic have yet to ease and will likely be sending ripples through many professions for the foreseeable future.
The virus has already left lasting changes to the landscape of the veterinary industry – not only in how it operates, but in how new professionals are taught from the ground up. Long gone are the days of packed-out waiting rooms and lecture theatres.
The more things change
Even with restrictions out of the way, it’s thought that measures put in place over the past two years to reduce viral transmission in our practices may remain the “new normal”, with clients asked to wait outside until necessary, and often with only a single owner asked to come in with their pet at any one time.
Several vet schools now operate under the banner of “blended learning”, whereby the curriculum is taught in a mixture of face-to-face content, live and online lectures, alongside pre-recorded, virtually accessible resources.
In the face of recurrent industrial action – coupled with the rising, desperate demand for new veterinary professionals – online teaching may offer a convenient, long-term solution.
Fallen behind
As with all change, there are pros and cons, although one area I think is yet to be fully addressed is the issue of EMS backlogs.
There are current backlogs in the NHS, the postal system and in many other major industries throughout the country, and I don’t believe the veterinary student training system has escaped unaffected.
For a good 12 to 18 months, many practices – especially small independents – were forced to shut their doors to both pre-clinical and clinical placements – and although EMS requirements were lowered for all year groups due to graduate by 2023, every succeeding year must complete the formerly required 26 weeks.
This has led to an overwhelmingly large number of students competing for a progressively smaller number of placement opportunities.
This makes it particularly difficult for students who lack their own transport, or the funds to travel far from their university or hometown, meaning there may be growing social inequity in the variety and quality of experience vet students are able to obtain.
Better the devil you know
Not only this, but large veterinary conglomerates may have the infrastructure to accommodate larger numbers of students, and new graduates may want to “stick with what they know” and, therefore, be less likely to consider signing contracts with smaller, independent practices.
There is also the argument that, with the rise of online teaching and decrease in student-lecturer contact, work experience has never been such a valuable tool in supplementing a student’s learning.
With the demand for placements higher than ever before, and veterinary practices sometimes two or three times busier than before the pandemic, the financial cost of EMS for some students has never been greater.
Essential experiences
Confidence, satisfaction and a balanced education behind all new graduates serves the interest of both individual professionals, and the profession as a whole.
In my opinion, there has never been a greater need for a review of the need for higher education funding for veterinary students, to allow every student access to a large variety of work experience and the opportunity to see what different avenues are available to them after graduation.
Whenever I meet veterinary students, I am often asked: “What questions should I ask in my job interview?”
For the past eight years, I have sat on the interviewer side of the table and have been asked some great questions.
Here are some I think – as long as it is relevant to your career goals – you could ask:
How many new graduates have you taken on in this hospital?
This is important if you are looking for a supportive practice that is accustomed to taking on inexperienced vets. You can extend this to ask: “How long do they generally stay for?”
Do you have a support system in place?
If the practice doesn’t, don’t go in there expecting it. If it does, it makes the practice accountable to what it says if the support structure is not in place.
What concerns do you have about me?
This is a great question I have used, but I have never been asked by someone I was interviewing.
This opens the forum for the interviewer to voice his or her concerns (if he or she wants to) and allows you address them right then and there.
Sometimes, it may just be a misunderstanding that stops someone from hiring you.
What expectations do you have of me?
The practice may have unrealistic expectations of you. It may expect you to take on too much with inadequate training, knowledge and resources.
It is better to have a conversation and develop an understanding or solutions around those expectations before you start.
What can I do that would make you feel that hiring me was a successful hire?
It is important for you to know your employer‘s markers of success from the start. You want to know if you can achieve them and if you are engaged by them.
What are the major roadblocks that you think I will come up against?
The practice may have experience taking on new grads, and seen what works and what doesn’t. Therefore, it helps to know what interviewer thinks you can do to overcome them.
Asking an interesting question – especially one that challenges the interviewer – is a really great way of being remembered.
Toward the end of my first year at university, a friend of mine stumbled upon a funny online student-made list of “things NOT to expect at vet school”. From memory, I think it included things we all related to such as Christmas holidays (curse you, exams), summer holidays (why, EMS, why?) and “a coolness status to rival the medics” (we are real doctors, I swear).
But what was probably the most relatable, and yet the one nobody really expects before vet school without already being in the know, is: “an abundance of men”.
Now, I’m not saying I signed up to the course for the sole purpose of a live action performance of It’s Raining Men, but, at the same time, you can’t help but be taken aback by the sheer volume of girls compared to guys the first time you walk into that lecture theatre.
While stereotypical – are women more likely to love all things cute and fluffy? – wonders Eleanor Goad.
Why, oh why?
Just to put it into perspective for you, my cohort for the year is roughly 150 students and 10% of those students are male.
According to gender statistics recorded by the Vet Futures project, it’s been like that for some time, in fact, the veterinary graduates’ ratio of female to male has only been increasing over the past few decades.
Nobody is really sure why. In human medicine the ratio is relatively even, so what is it about animals that strikes a chord with women more than men?
A maternal nature?
A love for all things fluffy?
Both these solutions seem a little stereotypical and, to be honest, we’re probably most unsure about the reason behind the numbers because nobody wants to touch this landmine of a topic with a 10-foot barge pole.
I really don’t have the answers myself, either – but it’s a curiosity I can’t not address.
Imbalance
I suppose I never noticed it growing up, or even doing work experience prior to vet school – which makes sense when you look again at the statistics as the gender gap seems to rein in after graduation. So, although around 70% of vet graduates are female, the number of practising female vets is more like 50%.
That difference doesn’t seem so odd once you’ve factored in maternity leave, but it’s not the only disparity. Despite the fact the veterinary population spewing out of universities across the country each year is overwhelmingly female, men make up the majority of those working as RCVS specialists, as farm/mixed practice vets and as RCVS fellows – the people committed to advancing the veterinary profession.
In essence, the vets who specialise outside of “general practice” are confusingly male. Positions of power in general practice, such as partner positions, are also held by men in a greater proportion than women.
How can this be?
As a veterinary student with, as yet, only a teeny tiny foot in the clinical world, I can only really speculate.
The best-case scenario for these statistics would be simple chance, that more men happen to have been interested in specialised careers than women, but this seems unlikely. It could also be down to the fact that maternity leave and childcare can unfortunately, but ultimately, lead to a lack of “career propulsion” (for lack of a better term), and can make it a little harder to advance in your profession at the same rate as male peers. More woman might choose job stability over returning to education or pursuing a less predictable career for the same reason.
These outcomes are understandable, but at the same time, nobody should be – or feel as if they are being – held back.
It’s my hope that, in future years, the gap between the genders closes, for more guys to aspire to a veterinary career, and for more practising female veterinary surgeons to pursue whatever career they chose, general or specialised.
When it comes to a course as busy and hectic as veterinary medicine, it can be easy to let certain things slide – especially around exam time.
There’s the occasional group event, the odd party and, of course, the big one – a healthy lifestyle.
I know from experience that when the grind really sets in, it’s all too easy to let these things go. However, I also know from experience that this can actually be counterproductive.
Hand in hand
When exams are always looming on the horizon, the choice between body or mind can seem like an all too easy one – since they aren’t going to be grading you on the number of vegetables you’ve consumed, or the hours of exercise you’ve done this week, it doesn’t always seem like a choice at all.
That’s why I wanted to give a little reminder that the two do, in fact, go hand in hand, and it is actually achievable to pass your exams and make it through your university years while subsisting on anything other than takeaway meals and four hours of sleep a night.
Working on your problem areas is the first step. If you struggle getting eight hours a night because you always know in the back of your mind there’s still work to be done, set yourself a schedule. During exam season, for example, I don’t let myself work past 8pm and the rest of the evening is for me.
Little and often
Staying on top of your workload on the lead-up to exams also does wonders, and doing “little and often” means you don’t find yourself with a mountain of work that keeps you up late into the night. If you absolutely have to get on top of the work and can’t find the time, try going to bed a little earlier and getting up a little earlier. You might just find you work better after a full night of sleep than blearily rubbing your eyes at gone midnight.
If you struggle to find time to socialise and exercise and when things get busy, one has to go – try joining a sports team or society and combining the two.
If you’re the person who finds it easier to skip meals to get a little extra studying in, just try to take note from what you’re actually studying. If you’re in a medical degree, whatever stage you’re at, you are blessed with the gift (or maybe the curse) of knowledge.
We’re all taught the dangers of under-eating or overeating, how blood sugar affects cognitive function and sleep quality… blah blah blah. These are things we all know like the back of our hand.
So, what’s the point of cramming our brains with all of this content if we don’t act on any of it or use it to our advantage?
“Try going to bed a little earlier and getting up a little earlier. You might just find you work better after a full night of sleep than blearily rubbing your eyes at gone midnight,” says Eleanor.
Consider the future
Now, if this article has struck a chord with you, and you need any more motivation, just think to the future.
I know right now stress is a key driver for skipping meals, exercise and getting a few hours’ sleep, and you might fully intend to break these habits once you’ve graduated and reached the greener grasses on the other side, but the thing to keep in mind is, even if you end up in the veterinary job of your dreams, it won’t be without stress or deadlines, or work always in the back of your mind. All the reasons to skip meals and sleep will still be there.
But if you can get a handle on it now and learn to look after yourself in these early days, it will follow you into the rest of your career.
And, quite frankly, even the most competent vet is going to struggle to command respect if they’re falling asleep at the consult table or giving advice to owners of how to take care of their pets when they’re still struggling to take care of themselves.
Not selfish
I think a lot of vets need to hear this – both students and fresh graduates especially. Your first patient, every day, has to be you.
Remember, you are important, your health is important, and it matters just as much as any of your patients. If you’re not healthy, how can you do what you do to the best of your ability?
By looking after yourself, you are looking after each of the animals you treat. It’s not selfish to look after your body just as much as your mind – it is essential.
Climate change and mass extinction have been hot topics over recent weeks. But, if we’re being perfectly candid, these subjects should have reached the headlines a long time ago – which is perhaps why so many people have taken to the streets of London in protest.
Though I share the plight of the people who have, and continue to demonstrate, as well as the frustration in the rate of progress being made (as it can appear, at times, to be achingly slow), there is nothing to be gained for mourning the time that’s been lost, as it’s time we will never get back.
The only change we should concern ourselves with is that to come and, in the current climate (no pun intended), the next generation of vets will be vital in filling environmental, public relations and food health roles as they never have before.
Food industry
In recent lectures we have been encouraged to research and understand elements of the food industry outside of our curriculum. One expert informed us that if we carried on consuming and demanding food at the rate we are now, we would require five-and-a-half planet earths’ worth of space to feed the population within the next 100 years.
Within the next 100 years we will require five-and-a-half planet earths’ worth of space to feed the population, it has been claimed.
This statement introduced what went on to be a two-hour seminar, and although none of the content was to be examinable, we all paid attention.
I think it’s because we all understood that what we were being taught went beyond text books and exam papers – it represented a facet of the veterinary career that probably very few of us had even considered before applying for the course, and yet now seems one of the most important.
Turning the tide
A veterinarian’s role in conservation is no new thing, but with multi-species extinction on the rise, and with no signs of slowing down, it’s never been more important to encourage graduates to forego the comfort zones of first opinion practice and expand their experience in this field.
It’s only by pooling together the research, time and expertise of as many trained medical, zoological and biological professionals as possible that we can begin to turn the tides, and protect the most vulnerable, but beautiful, creatures on our planet for good.
Sustainable diet
As for the world food crisis, reaching a solution is two-fold: finding a sustainable diet, and then finding the most efficient and cost-effective means of producing this diet on a global scale.
Veterinary involvement is paramount for this to be achieved. Not only are vets crucial for both ethical and reliable research, they are also the bridge between the scientific and farming communities.
By working alongside the farming industry and educating the next wave of agricultural workers in efficiency and sustainability, we can begin to form the infrastructure from which real, tangible change can be seen in all of our futures.
