Vet Times

Tag: veterinary school

  • Staff retention: double or quits?

    Staff retention: double or quits?

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    The recruitment problem in the veterinary profession is omnipresent and as crippling as ever. The most recent method of trying to tackle the shortage is the announcement of the University of Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science’s dual intake. The university has opted to enrol 150 undergraduates in September – as many institutions do…

  • The client from hell

    The client from hell

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    “Never work with children or animals,” advised WC Fields – I think I’d be inclined to add “the public” to that. While, on the whole, my client interactions have been good, every now and then you do get the occasional nutter. I’ve had drunk clients, barely able to stand up, let alone comprehend their half-bald…

  • The best things I never learned in vet school

    The best things I never learned in vet school

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    The greatest learning curve is perhaps the one that begins when you are given your first vet car and left to kit it out with a view to being a fully fledged independent vet on the road. Here are a few little life hacks you won’t find in your textbooks that can make life a…

  • Imposter syndrome

    Imposter syndrome

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    The human brain is an incredibly cruel and capricious thing, especially to its owner. Here’s an example: the best things that happen to you are only remembered poorly, with a vague, warm feeling that a nice time was had, although the specifics are hard to grasp. Bad news, as well as uncomfortable or embarrassing moments,…

  • Arts vs science: the path to vet school

    Arts vs science: the path to vet school

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    In my interview at Bristol vet school I was asked (not for the first time) if I thought the arts were worth more than the sciences, or vice versa. I’m the only vet student I know to have taken English as my third A-level, so, though I’m sure there are others, I feel like an…

  • Knowing what you don’t know

    Knowing what you don’t know

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    One of the most exciting and yet terrifying things about being a veterinary student is the fact there is always more to know. You can be the best student and even the best vet in the world, but you can never know everything – it’s simply impossible. I’m in the second year of my course…

  • How I finally fell in love with my job

    How I finally fell in love with my job

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    I’m Ami, and I’m a farm vet. I first wrote for Veterinary Times as a new graduate – wide eyed and enthusiastic, with a hint of terror that comes from not quite feeling ready to fly the nest. I’ve been a vet for seven years now, and it’s taken about six of those for me…

  • Friends or food?

    Friends or food?

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    The relationship between vets and animals is an odd one. When I tell people the course I study, 90% of them ask me if I’m vegetarian; when I say no, all of them ask me why not – and, to be perfectly candid, I never really know what to tell them. As a professional in…

  • Millennium baby

    Millennium baby

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    I qualified in 1999 and, because I drew the short straw and was a new graduate, I saw in the millennium with a friendly little Yorkshire terrier as it recovered from a seizure. I’ve spent New Years’ in worse company. Although the idea seems almost inconceivable to me, 1999 was actually a long time ago…

  • Corporate vet school

    Corporate vet school

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    The announcement of a corporate veterinary group’s collaboration with the new Keele University/Harper Adams veterinary school struck a few chords, and seemingly opened a figurative can of worms that (like their literal parasitic counterparts) just doesn’t sit well in my gut. A few points to consider here, the first of which I have written about…