Vet Times

Tag: graduates

  • Tips for your first month as a new graduate vet

    Tips for your first month as a new graduate vet

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    Your first real day as a vet, stepping through the doors of your practice for the first time, feels like it’s never going to come. But when it does, it’s exciting, its terrifying, it’s surreal and it’s overwhelming – all in one. Your university has likely done all it can to prepare you for these…

  • Taking the register

    Taking the register

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    As RVN register renewals appear in our inboxes, my research on the early world of veterinary registration and the accuracy of the paperwork seems as relevant as ever. Registering with the RCVS is a great moment for vets and vet nurses – you’ve gained your qualification and have met the criteria to use the post…

  • Tips for new graduates, part 2

    Tips for new graduates, part 2

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    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…

  • Tips for new graduates, part 1

    Tips for new graduates, part 1

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    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…

  • Life after vet school – graduation: where do I go from here?

    Life after vet school – graduation: where do I go from here?

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    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…

  • Are rabbits really ‘exotic’?

    Are rabbits really ‘exotic’?

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    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.…

  • Decision paralysis: how to choose

    Decision paralysis: how to choose

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    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”…

  • ‘Long COVID’ within the veterinary industry

    ‘Long COVID’ within the veterinary industry

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    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…

  • Diarrhoea at midnight: the OOH conundrum

    Diarrhoea at midnight: the OOH conundrum

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    The veterinary staffing crisis is hitting out-of-hours providers, which could potentially have a huge impact on the rest of the profession. Practices that outsource their out-of-hours care have been warned to have a contingency plan, while those struggling to staff their own in-house OOH services won’t have the option to outsource. There is no ideal…

  • Vets in crisis: the perfect storm

    Vets in crisis: the perfect storm

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    Working in veterinary at the minute is hard… We thought it was tough last year, but there always seemed to be a light at the end of the tunnel (staff coming back from furlough, the vaccine rollout, etc). We hoped by now that 2020 would just seem like a bad dream. But no. If anything,…