This has been a very relaxing term so far with not many lectures. We are doing Population Medicine and Public Health which involves doing a lot of economics, meat hygiene and just generally bringing everything together. Not the most interesting module but it's good to have a bit of a rest before the busyness of rotations begins in 5 weeks time. Talking of rotations, maybe I ought to explain what they are. The year is divided into 12 groups and during 4 week blocks throughout the year we spend time in different areas - small animal hospital, equine hospital, farm animal practice, and out on placements that we organise ourselves. It involves working long hours but it is vital experience and I think it will be enjoyable - if exhausting! The sheep at the college farm are lambing at the moment and my year have been asked to provide cover for the evenings. A friend and I are doing the 8-11 shift this evening which I'm sure will be VERY cold. Hopefully some lambs will be born to make up for it!
Well, it's been a very busy few months and it's ages since I last posted on here!
I really enjoyed all the work experience I did in the summer. It was very useful and I learnt a lot of theory and practical things.
Since the end of the summer, I have been working towards my fourth year exams which I took yesterday. I have no idea how they've gone but I'm going to enjoy the Christmas holidays and not worry about them until the results come out in January! I do hope I've passed though as I really do not want to have to resit.
Next week I've got another week's work experience and then it really is the holidays. I'm hoping to learn a lot more practical stuff this time which I really need to know.
Well, I've finally finished 3rd year. I now have a weekend break before starting my EMS (Extramural studies) on Monday. The last few weeks have been ok although I have been continually struggling to stay awake in lectures! We have had some practicals in the small animal hospital learning to test reflexes and examine eyes. These have been very interesting and helpful. Although I wish I had a bit more of a break now, I am looking forward to my work experience. At least it's a change of scenery. I am starting off at an equine practice near Chelmsford in Essex. I then have 4 weeks small animal practice and 2 weeks farm in Somerset.
Only 3 weeks away from the end of term! Everyone's feeling very tired and wishing we could have some kind of holiday but that'll have to wait until September. We've just finished our Locomotor System module which I found very difficult and not overly interesting. Tomorrow we start Neurology. I really need to revise which nerves go where but I don't think I've got enough time. Hopefully I'll pick it up again fairly quickly. We have a couple of practicals which sound really interesting - learning to examine eyes on real dogs and going into the small animal hospital to see current neurology cases. Hopefully it will be enjoyable. The second years are having exams this week. At least I haven't got any of them to worry about. I passed my horse handling resit so haven't got any more outstanding results.
I got my third year exam results a couple of weeks ago and fortunately I passed. This means that I will now get a tiny bit of holiday this summer. I am spending 8 weeks working at 4 different vet practices around the country and will get 2 weeks off at the beginning of September. Work is getting progressively more complicated but is quite interesting, as we are now learning about specific conditions and diseases that we will be treating once we graduate. I helped out at the college Open Day two weeks ago which went really well. Prospective students were able to find out a lot of stuff about college life, as well as visit the clinical skills centre and speak to current students. I hope anyone who came had a good time.
For the last two weeks I have been working at Howe and Starnes Veterinary Practice in East Sussex. It is a large mixed practice and I have really enjoyed my time here. I have been out on visits with the vets and have spent time in consultations as well. One of the highlights of my time here was going out to check up on a bitch with her 11 puppies - she had four more after we left! I am spending the next week working another practice before I return home to revise for my third year exams which take place towards the end of April.
Life has been pretty hectic the last few months which is why I haven't updated this site for ages! The end of last term was really interesting as we learnt about clinical techniques for example anaesthesia, radiology, wound management and diagnostic tests. It finally seemed relevant to what we will actually be doing on work experience placements and when we graduate. This term, we have started our Systems modules, where we work through different areas of the body learning about disease and treatments. The first module is the Alimentary system which lasts for 5 weeks (one of the longest). We spent a day yesterday learning about animal dentistry, which made everyone want to go home and check their animals' teeth!
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