Interview with VetsSupportingVets - New Graduate Veterinarian
Something different for you today vetlings! Thanks to generous Patreon sponsorship, we have an interview with @vetssupportingvets who, this month, chose to be interviewed about being a new graduate veterinarian.
Dr Ferox: Tell us a bit about where you work; small animal only, or mixed, 24 hours or business hours only, etc.
Vets Supporting Vets: I work at a Small Animal 24 hours hospital that also has 5 business hours branches with it. We also do out of hours for a couple of other practices in the area.
Dr Ferox: What was your first day at work like?
Vets Supporting Vets: My first day was initially scary but I quickly settled in. I've been fortunate to have a very supportive practice and my first day was spent learning the ropes and doing basic consults and learning the system. By the end of the week I was doing some more of the consults that were for sick animals etc.
Dr Ferox: What challenged you most about being a new graduate veterinarian?
Vets Supporting Vets: I would say the most challenging part is being the decision maker. Before you qualify you're just a small part of the decision making process, you bounce ideas off the vets in the uni hospital and they have the say and direction in the cases. Here it's you drawing conclusions and making decisions and it can be a bit daunting sometimes. But again I have a supportive practice who will always be happy to discuss cases through to help, and we all help each other.
Dr Ferox: Support is so important in those early days. What has surprised you most about being a new graduate veterinarian?
Vets Supporting Vets: This one's quite tricky. I think I surprised myself about how quickly I settled in, and became one of the team. What also surprised me was that I became a valuable member quickly. What I learned from that is that we graduate with the most up to date knowledge of things and going into practice some things are a bit behind. This makes you so useful going in. To introduce new ideas and, if you have a good set of skills you can (in some ways) show them off. Within a couple of months I was the practice ultrasonographer and cytologist, and it meant I could develop those skills.
Dr Ferox: Ultrasound is a very useful skill, and a fairly recent technology. When do you think you'll move on from your first job?
Vets Supporting Vets: I'm not sure when, I'm happy and growing here. I guess when I stop being pushed and challenged in the job as I feel it's important.
Dr Ferox: Has working in the field changed what you thought you wanted to do?
Vets Supporting Vets: Absolutely not, I've been fairly driven in what my interests were before university and I jumped at the opportunity to develop my interests once I graduated. They're still going strong and my work place want me to do a certificate for it.
Dr Ferox: That’s great! Now, what's the most embarrassing thing you've done that you're willing to share as a new veterinarian?
Vets Supporting Vets: Probably in my clinical notes I left a typo that was somewhat embarrassing. As it's well known through the practice I shan't repeat it.
Dr Ferox: If that’s the worst you’ve done, you’ve got nothing to worry about. What has been your proudest moment as a new veterinarian?
Vets Supporting Vets: I have two stand out moments. My first was my first day on call, 3 months after graduating and one in patient had dyspnoea. After bobbing the scanner on I saw a pericardial effusion, promptly though 'oh bugger' and rang my second vet. She then told me she'd never done one before and wouldn't be much help, so I decided to crack on with my little procedures book and have a go. It survived for another 5 months after that initial draining and I felt accomplished. The second was a puppy (not old enough to be vaccinated weight a few hundred grams) with head trauma and shock. Safe to say the veins were terrible and a previous vet had blown them. I had one shot to do something to help the puppy and placed a jugular catheter into the little ones neck, allowing us to treat it. I'm proud of these moments because I felt key to saving their lives and it was something a fair few of the other vets would've shied away from.
Thank you VetsSupportingVets for an insightful interview. Their blog is a helpful recourse for anyone in the veterinary industry who finds themselves struggling a bit.
This interview was sponsored by them on Patreon. You, too, can sponsor an interview there on the topic of your choosing, or even a series of posts. Or from as little as $1 a month you can choose future topics for the blog. Hope to see you there.
