The Journey Of A New Graduate

Well this month has flown by! May has been sunny here on Jersey and the island is stunning in the sunshine. The month started with a lovely three-day weekend followed by an extra bank holiday midweek that just happens on Jersey – Liberation Day. Then a lovely trip to Croatia and then another three-day weekend (in which my birthday happened), I’ve been sea kayaking, and barbequing and spending all my spare time on the beach. So, it may be because I have had more days off than normal, and the sun has been shining down, but life seems good at the moment! My social media has also been busy this month, starting out with all my friends in their final year of vet school desperately studying for their final year exams, the celebrations having once sat them and then the trepidation but ultimate joy at finding out they had passed. I cannot believe it was just a year ago that I was going through the exact same thing. I thought my final year exam was awful, I left the exam hall definitely feelin...

Sometimes I forget I’m only 9 months out of vet school, when the routine of each week seems wearing and the on-call phone rings in my dreams. But other times I feel so out of my depth it’s like I graduated just yesterday. However I’m feeling, I obviously always try to do my best for the animal in front of me and think through the problem logically. Sometimes I get it wrong, and that feeling of inadequacy is the worst thing I can feel. Or, at least I thought it was… But what about when you think something went well but the client is unhappy with the service you provided? This happened to me recently and I was completely unprepared for the blow, it felt almost physical and certainly ruined the rest of my week. It’s one thing to know I’ve made a mistake but quite another to think everything was fine only to find out afterwards it was not. I suppose these mismatches in vet/client expectations happen to us all, but do you ever forget the first time? I know that I am still dwelling upon it...

The beginning of this month saw me navigating the slopes around Tignes in minus 20°C without a) hurting myself and b) killing myself. It was my first attempt at skiing since I was a small child and the 25-year gap between outings did nothing for my ability or confidence. As the days passed my skills sharpened up and falls became blessedly less frequent.  I found when I didn’t worry so much then my skiing became more relaxed and therefor more enjoyable. Overthinking is a knack of mine so this was a tricky task, I bit like mastering rising trot when I was learning to ride. The trick is to realise when you’re doing well then immediately think about anything else! And I did manage to let go and enjoy myself, although on one memorable occasion I thought I was on a blue piste and skiing happily along until I realised, somewhat belatedly, it was actually a red piste. I’m not sure how long I was unintentionally on this route but as soon as I realised my skiing became a lot poorer. The feel...

Happy February everyone! This month has been a good one for me, consisting of an on-call week which wasn’t crazy, a weekend up at Glasgow for Old Boys which certainly was. As I was catching up with all my classmates up in Glasgow, we did the usual thing of comparing the ups and downs of new grad life, sharing horror stories and generally celebrating the fact we were in jobs we’ve wanted since we were children.  However, at least three of my friends have already left their first jobs, with another looking to make a move; all contributing to that oft-quoted statistic of new grads spending on average one year in their first jobs.  Between us I think we have come up with some useful advice for those of you starting to think about your futures beyond the safe confines of vet school. It was about this time last year that I started job hunting in earnest, before interviewing and accepting a position in April. I have friends who found jobs very quickly, and others that took a bit ...

Well, it had to happen. I’ve been merrily working on this blog now for over 6 months with no problems and then January rolls around and I’m stuck. Humph. I’ve lost track of the hours I’ve spent staring at a blank page trying to encapsulate my feelings this month. Am I aiming to be uplifting? Serious? Controversial (never!)? I go back and focus on last month’s blog, reading its message of looking for the positive and try to find examples, which I do. For instance, I successfully placed a stomach tube in a pony at the first attempt when called out to a colic last week. This may not seem like a big deal but I’ve had a real mental block about this so I was thrilled I managed it smoothly and (I hope to the owner’s eye) calmly. Thinking about my sort-of new years resolution to look at the positives has got me thinking about the other resolutions people make. Now I’m not making any claim to attempting dry January or ‘Veganuary’ (I’m an everything in moderation type of person) but thinking a...

Sorry about the lateness of December’s blog everyone, I promise I had made good progress writing this edition during December but then everything went rather mental. The week before Christmas I spent on call which culminated in a Saturday which did not seem to end! My last patient of the day was down as a pug that had been in a dog fight… ‘Geez’ I thought to myself, picturing awful lacerations and eyeballs out of their sockets. In trots in this little dog, the only thing wrong that I could see was that he had a mild limp. This was not what I was expecting! The owner explained her dog (the pug) had run out of her house and into her next-door neighbour’s house where he promptly tucked into the neighbour’s dog’s (a mastiff) lunch. Said mastiff, unsurprisingly, did not take kindly to this theft and gave the little pug what for. Amazingly the wee dog escape unscathed, just pulling a muscle running away home! Which is a nice example of the main thing I have learnt about being a first opinion...

Well it’s been five months of being a real-life vet and while vet school and 38 weeks of EMS does a lot to prepare you for a career in veterinary medicine, there is nothing quite like on the job experience! Chatting with my classmates about their experiences of a newly graduated vet it seems that there are some definite surprises that nothing can prepare you for. And so, I present: What no one told you about becoming a vet – the surprises of a new grad in practice. There are a surprising number of dog owners who aren’t aware of the functional anatomy of their pet’s reproductive system. This was common to a lot of my friends, accompanied by horror stories of having to explain exactly what that ‘white stuff’ coming out of their dog’s nether regions was. I remember a specific call from a distressed lady one evening when I was last on call, her dog had managed to tie with a teddy bear and it took all my professionalism to keep a straight face and calm voice during the phone call. The r...