July 2017 – From Glasgow to Jersey

Welcome to the latest BEVA blog! Max Hannan graduated from the University of Glasgow in the summer of 2017 and we will be following her journey over the coming months as she begins her career in mixed practice in Jersey. 

After a whirlwind weekend of graduating, Grad Ball, entertaining the family, packing up my life and cleaning my student flat I find myself on a ferry bound for Jersey. “Oh sh*t, what have I done?” I think to myself as the English coastline recedes into the distance. While most of my friends chose to remain in Scotland or the north of England, I took a job on the island of Jersey (total area 45 miles², population 100,000) over 550 miles away from my university home in Glasgow (city area 56 miles², population 600,000) with the aim of doing a mix of small animal and equine practice. 

I was met by the friendly face of the practice manager at the ferry terminal who helped me back to the practice flat where he promptly got stuck in unloading my car and introducing me to Cate, an RVN who worked at the practice and my new flatmate. After a few mornings sorting out the business of registering me as a resident and a vet on the island, Monday rolled around all too quickly – it was time for my first day!

Not sure what to expect I arrived bright and early, my new co-workers seemed just as excited as I was about my first day with multiple offers to show me around, introduce me to the computer system and encouraged me to come to them with questions.  As I got stuck in taking bloods and trying to regain my skill at IV catheters, the busy Monday morning whirled around me. I was rota’d on to do two hours of consults and was pleased to see that I’d been booked doubles all week, 30 minutes to do a booster vaccination – surely even I could cope with that?! I managed to get through weight loss in a cat, a booster in a nervous Spaniel and a wee kitten with fleas and worms. First day down and no major issues = success!

Now I had to tackle the equine side, Jersey is small but is the home of 1200 horses and rather surprisingly, a racecourse. Tagging along one glorious Friday evening for a meet I tied on my officials badge and spent the evening looking at the horses in the parade ring, checking passports and trying to remember all the people I was introduced to! Not long after I accompanied Sam out on a call to do some radiographs and I felt I acquitted myself quite well by taking a fairly decent series of fetlock views on a rather awake racehorse. Next, a trip to a wee Shetland with laminitis with Rachel, another one of the equine vets. I was pleased to see that my assessment matched with Rachel’s and the treatment plan I formulated in my head was roughly the same as what was recommended.

The main overwhelming thoughts during these first few weeks, whether in consults, surgery or on visits, was that I was now the vet in charge, and I was responsible for everything I said and did. Suddenly, blagging my way through a consult was no longer acceptable, or even something I wanted to do. Equine cases I would have classed as straightforward as a student suddenly merited a lot more thought and attention. I am lucky that I can run into the back and ask the opinion of much more experiences colleagues when I am stuck or want to double check something - which is alas pretty common; and I also have a clinical coach to go over any tricky cases booked in and review what I’ve done at the end of the day and offer pointers. I know that some of my friends are not as fortunate as I am in this respect, but as a new grad this support gives me confidence to make my own clinical decisions.  As a 3-week graduated vet, I am so happy to be doing what I’ve always dreamed of. This may sound nauseating to some of the old hands out there but for now I look forward to every day.