Celine Bik, Jonna Juhola and George Stefanidis explain more about life as a rotating intern at Pride Veterinary Centre.
A Typical Day
No two days as a Rotating Intern are ever the same, a diverse range of cases and a variety
of disciplines make for a very varied day-to-day working life.
The days in which the Interns work are very much determined by the discipline they are currently in, Celine said: “We work in blocks of six weeks and the first three weeks you usually follow a specialist in one specific discipline (for example anaesthesia) so you get the opportunity to work on your own cases and help whenever you can. So, the day really depends on what speciality you are in at that time.”
However, despite this there is an overall daily routine to follow, Jonna describes it here: “Usually first thing in the morning we will see the in-patients and get hand over from night Interns. We then have rounds from 9am and then see the first patients who come in at about 9:30am.” Typically Interns will complete tasks such as, ensuring the correct forms are completed during consultations, taking the patients to the right places, taking bloods and putting in IV drips. They also get the chance to do emergency consults and physical examinations.
Jonna described herself as “an extra pair of hands to help out the specialists.” There are a variety of different teams that Interns can work within:
- Anaesthesia
- Neurology
- Medicine
- Surgery
And every six weeks there is the chance to do a late shift week and during that time Interns are able to decide what other disciplines they would like to get involved in that are not included in the main programme (examples of this include dermatology or cardiology).
Learning Opportunities
There are also a range of other learning opportunities such as a weekly journal club for various disciplines, everyone is welcome to these in order to share and further their learning. There are also free CPD evenings that are held every month in the conference room here at Pride Veterinary Centre.
We see a wide range of cases here at our hospital, Celine described a foreign body case that stood out to her, “A grass blade in the nose of the cat that had been in there for two weeks was interesting. In the end it took three hours to get the foreign body out and it was a technique we hadn’t used before. We had to adapt to the situation and we ended up with a camera up through the mouth and at the back of the soft palate, we pushed something through his nose and we finally got it out.”
George also explained that in just one month of being here he too had seen some fascinating cases. “One surgery I saw that was really interesting was a Portosystemic Shunt performed by our Surgeon Rosario. You have to be really careful with this as it is a delicate surgery to perform, I have only ever seen this done once in Greece. I was so amazed by the way it was approached as the safest way possible was used. Rosario ensured that there would be minimal complications by being so cautious,” he said.
Each Intern also shared one of their favourite parts of their job, George explained how he likes having the opportunity to see all the disciplines in the hospital and gain a wider knowledge. “I’ve not been here very long, and I have already seen many difficult and complex cases than I ever would have not got the opportunity to see at my previous job”, he continued to say.
Celine explained that the diversity in the work load makes it feel as though you are not working as there is no opportunity for things to become repetitive. She added: “Seeing the animals leave the hospital and going home to their owns is also something I find really rewarding.”
Working in a referral practice means that you get the chance to follow difficult cases all the way through and this is something Jonna is finding very interesting as she has previously only worked in a first opinion practice.
Learn More About Our Interns
Celine Bik
Celine has worked here for six months and graduated from Ghent University in 2017. She moved to the UK for the variety of opportunities it has and thinks she would like to go into internal medicine.
Jonna Juhola
Jonna has also worked here for six months, she Graduated from Estonia University of Life Sciences in 2012. Jonna moved to the UK for the increased number of cases it has and the referring practices it contains. She has an interest in every discipline within Pride Veterinary Centre
George Stefanidis
George has worked here for one month and graduated from Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in 2017. He only moved the UK two months ago and has a growing interest in surgery.