Vet Times

Tag: Stress

  • What about vets on the front line?

    What about vets on the front line?

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    Our profession is generally pretty good at pulling together in the face of adversity. I’ve always loved the community feel of being able to go to CPD events, and usually know someone, or have connections with someone, who is there. I love being able to send a message to my uni friends at any time…

  • Nurse pets

    Nurse pets

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    After my recent blog about Ebony, I’m here to be brave and say that I’m single. In every way, I am foot loose and fancy free. For the first time in 16 years I have no pets. Ebony and I had been a little team since early last year, and now it’s just me. It…

  • Commonly held beliefs that don’t do us any good, pt 3

    Commonly held beliefs that don’t do us any good, pt 3

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    Belief #3: Vet science is much harder than other jobs You’ve heard those conversations where vets pontificate about the injustice of their lot in life and their poor career choices. We love to share stories about old acquaintances who are invariably less talented and not nearly as smart as us (we’re vets after all – the…

  • What’s the worst that could happen?

    What’s the worst that could happen?

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    A few years ago, I noticed my family cat had a lump on her neck that seemed to be getting larger. We had it removed by the local vet who told us it was almost certainly benign, and that sending it off for testing would be overly expensive and potentially unhelpful, depending on the results.…

  • Four-day working week

    Four-day working week

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    As a private sector service, veterinary – despite many businesses being under corporate ownership – still varies widely from practice to practice. This includes, of course, the omnipotent “rota”. The hours a vet would be expected to work are completely dependent on the practice – and often the individual, too. With part-time work and job…

  • The fallacy of prophecy

    The fallacy of prophecy

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    Evolution by natural selection has provided us with some wonderful tools to make sense of and manipulate the world. All of us carry around one of the most complicated objects in the universe within our skull, and our bloated, folded brains are able create illusionary facsimiles of the world around us, and imagine what may…

  • Balancing health with a busy schedule

    Balancing health with a busy schedule

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    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…

  • Christmas chocolate etiquette

    Christmas chocolate etiquette

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    The festive season is always a whirl of extra out-of-hours shifts and complicated rotas, but I want to get on to some more serious matters for December – ones that might mean you need to start planning for next Christmas right now. Yes, I’m talking about Christmas chocolate etiquette roulette. You can choose your friends?…

  • Don’t bite off more than you can chew

    Don’t bite off more than you can chew

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    All students dream of having it all – straight As, buzzing social life and maybe a small part-time job to help you afford the latter… There’s no doubt that whatever year you’re in, whatever course you’re on, you’ve probably got a lot going on. The important thing I’ve found, however (easier said than done, mind…

  • Ludicrous layouts: no space for anything and everything out of place

    Ludicrous layouts: no space for anything and everything out of place

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    I’m probably going to come over all “feng shui”, but working in some different spaces recently has got me thinking about how we choose where things go in the veterinary clinic – especially in converted buildings that were never intended to be a veterinary practice. Do we really “choose” where things go, or do we…