Tag: mental health
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Are new grads avoiding OOH?
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With the increasing popularity of outsourcing out-of-hours care to specific emergency centres, today’s new graduates have a very real option to never have to work OOH. While it is often insinuated it would be a good learning experience to at least do some OOH during your veterinary career, many new grads are opting for the…
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The ‘many paws’ depriving our pets
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I’ve recently been to a writing group I sometimes go to, because, well, I suppose I am a writer. I’ve never written that before, but I do get paid to write, so I suppose I’m a “professional”, and I do write and get published quite a lot. Now I’m meant to do some stuff with…
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Is a non-clinical RVN still an RVN?
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Let’s start off this new year with a “State of the Nation” review. After all, in the murky half-light of January it can sometimes feel sluggish and gloomy if you’re uncertain about things coming in the future. So, let’s banish these feelings (at least for a little while) – where are we now for RVNs?…
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Breaking away from a vet’s diet of fast food
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A while ago, I wrote about anorexia in vets… the stripped down, bare meaning being the clinical sign of “not eating”. As a student, I witnessed vets on placements routinely forgoing lunch or existing on a diet consisting entirely of Pot Noodles or fast food – one vet I shadowed had either a McDonalds or…
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Why do we suffer more?
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We lost another colleague recently. I didn’t know them personally, but I have seen the many statements of grief, shock and disbelief left in the wake of their passing, and have been deeply saddened to think of another member of the veterinary profession finding themselves in a place where they felt there was no other…
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New vet schools are not the solution
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We’ve barely had a day of news in the past year that didn’t include Brexit. Yet, do any of us really know what the real consequences will be? Within the veterinary profession, specific factors are undoubtedly going to be influenced by Brexit, even if we don’t know the extent of these yet. They do, however,…
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It’s good to talk…
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The issue of poor mental health in the veterinary profession as a whole is becoming more recognised, and has sparked the launch of initiatives such as Mind Matters and Vetlife’s helpline service. But what about vet students specifically? When I was applying for vet school, I remember numerous people told me the hardest part is…
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Good mental health – not just for humans
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Hollie has had a big month. She’s had surgery and now we’ve started behavioural therapy. To be fair, she’s generally a bit anxious as she hadn’t really been socialised at all until we got her at six years old – so she’s always been a bit behind the usual socialisation time frame. We cope with…
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Careers: choices, paths and wishes
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I was talking to a colleague at work this week. We both have children about the same age, so naturally (and annoyingly to anyone who doesn’t have kids) there’s lots to share – nappy stories, who-jammed-what-object-where stories, and which-kids-TV-show-makes-you-feel-least-like-murdering-people stories. These conversations happen a lot, and when they happen with other vets, there’s an elephant…
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Eating disorders and the veterinary profession
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The general public associates the word “anorexia” with the eating disorder characterised by refusing to eat to lose weight, which, in human medicine, has the more specific name of “anorexia nervosa”. As vets, we use the word the term “anorexic” in the slightly different sense of being a clinical sign our patients exhibit – defined…