I will hand over now to Nicole. This is Nicole Munt. Nicole graduated from the RBC in 2014.

She started as a mixed, predominantly farm vet in North Wales, and then moved to a mainly small animal practise in, in Nottinghamshire in 2016. Her particular interests include small animal medicine, dentistry, so I'm sure she's checked out the Wikiett dentistry section, and emergency and critical care. And she's going to be talking to you about some top tips for your first few days in practise and setting yourself up for success.

So I will hand over now to Nicole. So, hi everyone, as they've said, I'm Nicole. I'm a vet working in mixed practise.

I qualified from the RBC in 2014. In the same month I started my first job in a mixed, predominantly farm practise in North Wales. And then 2 years later, I moved home to Nottinghamshire, where I started working in what was my base practise as a vet student.

This is also a mixed practise, but with predominantly small animals, a mix of beef and sheep, lots of small holders, and if I'm going to be completely honest, probably too many horses for my liking. I've been working in this practise for the last 6 years, and I'm quite settled. I'm also now a GDP advisor, and I currently have 2 new or recent graduates under my wing.

I was asked to do this talk by one of the organisers of the event, because, and I quote, You're a normal mixed vet working on the coalface of the profession. I'm not quite certain of her def definition of the word normal, but I, I would agree that I am an everyday vet working in a mixed practise. I haven't done any postgraduate graduate certificates, and I'm not a specialist in any field, but I do think that I've had a lot of experience of the ups and downs of general practise, which I suspect most of you will be facing already or in the very near future.

So the aim of this talk is to discuss some hints and tips that might help you prepare for and survive your first few days and weeks as a newly qualified vet in general practise. So this talk is going to be more like a practical guide rather than any new clinical material, but I do hope that by the end of it, you will feel a little more prepared to approach your first day as a vet, unless you are already in practise, in which case, I hope that you can identify with some of the things that we discussed, and that some of the hints and tips can still help you as you make your way through your first few months in practise. So, what is success?

Obviously, there are many ways of measuring success in your career, and everyone will have their own ideas on this. For me, when it came to my career path into veterinary, a lot of my initial ideas of success were based around simply making the next step on my journey to becoming a vet. So first it was getting those decent string of GCSEs, then A Levels, actually resitting the A Levels, then gaining a place at vet school, getting through 5 years of vet school to graduation, and then suddenly it was the idea of being a vet, like actually being someone who people visited and paid to fix their sick animals.

So as a student, I had a lot of amazing role models to look up to. There were lecturers, clinicians, farmers, specialists in their field. But to me, my biggest role models were always the vets I met in practise, because they were the ones doing the job that I envisaged one day I'd be doing.

I saw them develop relationships with their clients to help them heal their animals. I saw them excited when they brought a new puppy or a kitten in, and I saw them cry when they put their older and sick pets to sleep. They were genuinely invested in these relationships.

I, like many, grew up devouring the James Harriet books, and I loved reading the stories about him becoming a staple part of the local community. The idea that you can make such a difference to an animal and a client's life with your knowledge and skills is what has always inspired me into the profession. So for me, my idea of success in the best of profession is actually quite simple.

I want to do the very best for my patients, and I want my clients to trust me. So much so that when they go back to reception, they ask, please, can I see Nicole again? Because for me, that was, and still is, a measure of success, a measure that I am doing my job well and to the best of my ability.

Now, obviously not every client will like you or want to see you again and you can't please everybody, but I do think that knowing that you're building relationships in general is a good marker that you're doing a good job. I think this philosophy is especially relevant for new graduates as they enter general practise. I've chatted to a lot of my colleagues, some of whom are now specialist neurologists or surgeons or whatever, but they all say the same thing, that their main aim for their first day in practise was to simply try to do the job well.

So with this in mind, I've divided this lecture into 6 fairly short sections. First, we'll start by considering what knowledge you already have and what you think you might need to focus on for day one. Then we will look at developing a vets starter pack so that you have the useful reference document to hand as you meet your first few clients.

We'll also consider what equipment you might need in your consult room or vehicle before going on to discuss, discuss the art of veterinary medicine, the all-important hints and tips for communicating with clients. We'll also talk about finding support and asking for help. And then finally we'll touch upon the importance of focusing on yourself and not comparing yourself to your peers, which, yes, it is a lot easier said than done.

So, preparing for day one. As an RVC graduate, when someone talks about setting yourself up for success for your first few weeks in practise, you inevitably think of David Church and his strong Australian accent, repeatedly exclaiming at every opportunity, When you graduate, it's gonna be the first day of the rest of your lives, guys. The man was not wrong, because those of us who have graduated can all remember how amazing it felt when we found out we'd passed.

It was, and it is exciting to know that 5 or more years of hard work has finally paid off. And it is something to be so incredibly proud of. But what you don't expect is when amongst that feeling of elation, you start to feel a prickle of something else.

It's like a very unexpected and slightly ominous feeling of, now what? You've been racing towards this goal of gaining a vet degree for years and years, never looking left nor right. And now that you've reached that goal, you suddenly stop and think, oh, I'm actually a vet.

So now the buck stops with me. People are going to be bringing their sick animals to me to fix. I'm going to be making life and death decisions about someone else's pride and joy.

I actually have to do this job that I've set out for so long to do. And actually, whilst it is really exciting, it's also quite a daunting prospect. But what you need to do is take a step back and think about it logically.

After all, you have spent the last 5 years being taught how to be a problem solver. You know that you have a lot of knowledge, it's all in there somewhere. You've literally just passed a vet degree.

You know how different antibiotics work, you know the differentials for a vomiting dog. You even probably have a vague knowledge about the sensitivity and specificity of the ACTH stimulation test, maybe. So when you're preparing for day one in the job, you don't need to be worrying about all of the science that's floating around your head.

Really, the useful things to consider would be what are you likely to see on day one? What do you need to get you through your first day? Is it really important to be able to recite the various options for the surgical repair of a cruciate ligament rupture, or would you be better placed thinking about how you might approach common things like a cat bite, cat bite abscess, the dog with a sore ear, the rabbit that isn't passing faeces, that cow with milk fever, or maybe the colicing horse?

There isn't any point trying to revise 5 years' worth of knowledge at the Sunday before you start your new job. It's never going to happen. Instead, have a read through your notes from your general practise rotations, the ones where you spent days in charity practises or on EMS seeing first opinion practise.

Think about how you might approach the most common cases. The whilst I'm here, could I just ask questions, which are inevitable when you see those first few boosters. Remind yourself about vaccine and worming protocols.

Some of these things sound really basic, but actually they will form a mainstay of your workday and the rest will naturally follow. Also, don't forget, the most amazing thing about being a vet is that you are no longer being constantly examined. If you don't know or can't remember something, you can simply look it up.

You just need to know where to look and who to ask. So, when you get offered your first job in practise and you have been given a start date, try to get in contact with the vet who is going to be responsible for supporting you. When I started in a large mixed practise, there were 3 new graduates all starting at the same time, and we were all assigned an individual mentor.

This was in a time before GDP existed, so it wasn't a compulsory thing that the practise had to offer, but it was incredibly useful. Now, you are all theoretically guaranteed a vet GDP advisor. Find out who this is and have a chat with them.

Find out if they're going to be responsible for supporting you for the first few weeks, or is it going to be somebody else? Ask what the setup is going to be for the first day or week in practise. If you're going to be walking into consultations or visits at 9:00 a.m.

On Monday morning, then it is going to definitely be worth asking if you can come in for a few half days the week before, just so you can get to grips with things like the computer system, have a look around the dispensary, look at what vaccines and worms they use, see what your practise vehicle looks like. Don't be afraid of asking the vets in your practise if they have any little reference guides or help sheets or any other useful resources to point you towards. Everyone will have practical little nuggets of information in their heads, some of which might really help you in those first few days.

Over the years, I have developed a new graduate pack that acts as a quick reference guide. As more new vets have entered the practise, it has taken shape into a little book of knowledge for anyone starting their first job with specifically us. It basically summarises major functions on the practise admin system, things like how to pull up the diary, how to record and price the consultation, and how to book a follow-up appointment.

It also has a summary summary of our vaccine and worming protocols for various species and a basic approaches to more commonly seen presentations in practise, just as a starter. It also has a list of which antibiotics do what and doses for the most frequently used drugs. And things like instructions on how to run a blood sample out of hours when you're by yourself and how to switch the X-ray machine and incubator on, random things like how to print an off licence form and password to the practise email.

These are all things you wouldn't necessarily think about until you actually need to do it. I also had a list of acronyms. Some of these are universal in veterinary and some are very specific to certain vets in our practise.

So it is another useful reference to have. This is a dynamic document that is designed to be added to and changed. It acts as a tool for the new graduate to build upon and add to.

Some have still got it crumpled in their pocket a year after being given it. So do speak to your older and experienced colleagues about this and try to develop one that can act as a handy reference for you in your first few weeks in your practise. Don't forget there are also loads of useful and practical books out there like Jill Maddison's Clinical Reasoning in Small Animal practise, the top 100 consultations, and the mini vet guide.

Obviously the BSA VA formulary and Noah Compendium are must-haves for your your van or room. Ask your new practise what they have available, and if you want something else, then look into buying it before you start. Plenty of people are selling these books secondhand all the time on Facebook, Amazon or eBay.

Obviously we are all now living in the 21st century, so most of us are walking around with a smartphone in our pockets. There are loads of apps out there allowing us to have access to a lot of information with just the push of a button. They're the there are the obvious ones like the BSAVA app, which in addition to the Formula E, also has a poisons database and procedures guide, and the NoA app is one to have for the full compendium of data sheets.

It's worth knowing that if your practise uses a lot of Nor Norblock products, it's worth having their app as well, as they don't intend to put their product data sheets on nowhere. I've recently discovered the Vet Nex app, which is actually really, really useful because it's got dose calculators, and again, a really easy to access compendium that I find particularly user friendly. I would really recommend this one.

The DeRA app is useful for anaesthetic protocols and the Kimber app helps you calculate CRIs and has good procedure descriptions, so I do think it's a bit more applicable in America. There's also the Minnesota Eurolift centre app, which I find incredibly useful, which when developing management plans for my urinary cats and dogs. Yes, probably not something you'll be doing on day one, but certainly worth having in your pocket.

I'm sure there are plenty of apps out there that I'm not even aware of that will be very helpful, so do be sure to ask your peers. It might also be worth having a WhatsApp group where you can share useful resources as you discover them. Do make sure you have these downloaded onto your phone before you start, as you can't always rely on having good Wi Fi signal in your practise.

It is also worth mentioning that a lot of the pharmaceutical company websites often have useful webinars and CPD relating to their subject area or products. For instance, TBM have an entire pack of toxicity guidelines. These are individual infographics that will help you approach the most commonly seen toxins in small animal practise, and it is something that I go back to again and again.

So moving on to an equipment list. Another big thing to think about is getting to know your surroundings. The old saying goes, fail to prepare and prepare to fail.

And when it comes to dealing with your first few days as a vet, when anything could potentially walk through that door, you'll be glad that you took the time to get to know where those things live. Obviously, you might not see a colic or a C-section on your first day, but it will make you more comfortable to know that you have the equipment to hand should you need it. So if you're going to be working in a mixed or a small animal only practise, then you will want to familiarise yourself with your consultation rooms.

Work out what you have and haven't got in there and add to it what you want. Then explore the dispensary. Do have a look at the vaccines that are used and familiarise yourself with the brands of the most commonly used medications, as this will affect what you price when dispensing.

For instance, does your practise use Metaam or OxyCon, Singulox or Noolov, and so on and so forth? If you're going to be out on the road, then you will need a vehicle. Whether or not you're using a practise vehicle or providing your own should already have been discussed, but either way, they will need to be reasonably well stocked.

Ask your mentor or one of your colleagues if you can have a look at their vehicle and see if you can get a feeling for how you want to organise yours. They might even have an equipment list they can share with you or some hints and tips on what to put where. Have a think about what things you are going to be sent to in the first few days.

Even now, when I get a call, I'll make a list in my head. OK, so I'm going to a colic. Well, have I got my stethoscope and my thermometer?

Have I got enough you and Felixing and buskpan in my car? Have I got my stomach tube and bucket? Have I got gloves and lube?

Have I got enough somullos and pentejects, catheters, syringes, bungs? You might think some of these are really obvious, but if you share a vehicle or work in a practise where people will happily go stealing equipment when you're not looking, it's always better to find out that you're missing that stomach tube before you get to the colic. Obviously everyone will want to set up their vehicle differently, but I'll just talk you through some hints and tips that I've developed over the years.

So in my first job, I worked out of a practise car. Which I was allowed to use for private use. So as a new grad with a limited budget, this was great, as it meant I could sell my car and just rely on the practise vehicle.

However, bear in mind that if you do this, every time you want to visit home or friends, especially in cities, then you might want to empty your car or vet's stuff, which can become a bit of a chore. I now drive a little practise van which is actually really good, good. It's got plenty of space and you soon get used to driving without a rearview mirror and I love having a separate work vehicle.

I like having everything super accessible and simple, so I've got a set of drawers that have two separate compartments for farming equine drugs. Then syringes and needles, blood tubes and other lab stuff, etc. One top tip I was given when I first started was to store drug bottles and the little polystyrene holders they're delivered in.

Then you can have a little piece of paper in each holder underneath the bottle with dosage, main uses, and withdrawals on for ease of use. I have a lot of things in boxes, so I can just lift them up and go. So I've got a separate C-section box with drugs and sterile surgery kit in there, and then a smaller stitched up kit with a boon and needle for prolapses and Red Devils for bloats, things like that.

Then I've got a duffel bag full of bandages that I can literally just put on my back and go, and then a few empty trays that I can throw a few jugs in and go if I need to trudge across the field. I also think having these things in separate boxes means you get to contain any mess a little easier, which is also why I sit my wellies and waterproofs in a shallow tray to prevent the base of the van getting sodden. And I do have a few bungee cords that act as a drying rack for really wet days.

You'll also want to make sure you've got spares of certain things such as thermometers and pens, a head torch with batteries for those long dark nights. Make sure you've got a sat-nav or if you're very rural, you'll want maps of the area so that you can circle the main farms and yards you'll be going to. You can't always rely on having a phone signal in these areas.

Laminate any reference sheets and stick them on the inside of your van, so you can have a quick look if you are stuck and do carry a Noah Compendium just in case you don't have signal. Make sure you have all the paperwork you might need. So if your practise uses them, you want things like visit sheets and then obviously consent forms, off licence forms and labels.

Remember, if you're dispensing medication in the field, you must ensure they are labelled correctly. It's also important to make sure you've got supplies for you. Plenty of snacks, a bottle of water, a few coats, a blanket, a phone charger, and even a lead rope if you're planning on picking up stray dogs along the way, which does happen.

Have a first aid kit and a warning triangle, and be aware of where your spare wheel lives and the telephone number for your breakdown company. It's also worth storing contact numbers for your colleagues, local referral centres, and the fallen stock man in your phone. You might think some of these supplies sound excessive, but one of my colleagues once got stuck in a ditch on a mountain road on the way back from a call in the middle of the night.

She didn't know where the nearest house or farm was, had no fear of phone signal, and didn't want to go wandering into the countryside all alone. We all thought she was sleeping soundly through her on-call phone when we kept ringing, and only realised the following morning when she appeared looking a bit bedraggled. It turns out she'd spent the night sleeping under the dog, blanket, snuggled up to the collie for warmth.

That brings me to my final point about vehicles. If you're going to be taking a dog out on your visits, make sure you have the means to securely fasten them as this is a legal requirement. Make sure they have supplies too in case you find yourself away from the practise for a lot longer than expected.

And obviously this really shouldn't have to be said, but don't leave dogs in hot cars. Also, hopefully this will never be applicable to any of you, but do make sure anything heavy is fastened down so it doesn't act like a missile in the event of an accident. So now we move on to the arts and veterinary medicine.

So hints and tips for communicating with owners. If you like it, like it or not, at least 50% of your job is going to be talking to clients. So knowing how to speak to them is very important.

Whether or not a client will trust you is going to be established within your first few minutes of interaction. So even if you're feeling all wobbly, try to sound confident in what you're saying. Start with open questions, greet the client and give them the opportunity to finish their opening statement.

Then ask them more specific questions. Ask them to define what they've said. Use the trunk and check method, both to ensure that you've got all the right information and to ensure that they've understood what you've said when giving them options or treatment recommendations.

Give the client options whilst also giving them guidance. Some clients will prefer a clear decisiveness, whereas other clients will prefer to feel like they've played a part in the decision making. And if there isn't one correct way of dealing with a case, then don't be afraid of being quite open.

I'll often say, well, really, there isn't a right or a wrong way of dealing with the situation. My job is to make sure you're making an informed decision and that we are on the same page in terms of your expectations. Try not to judge people for their situation.

Whilst there will be some situations where you'll be frustrated by the apparent discrepancy in the client's financial priorities and their desire to have a healthy animal, it is important to remember that we don't fully understand someone's financial or personal situation. And if someone is very transparent about the fact that they aren't going to be able to afford hundreds of pounds of gold standard treatment, then help them realise that it is OK to take a pragmatic approach to the case. And remember, euthanasia is never a welfare concern.

When a client is making a decision regarding euthanasia, trying to alleviate their concerns, I, like many in our profession, strongly believe that euthanasia is a huge privilege, and I will make sure to tell my client of this. You will develop your own phrases and patter over the years, but I often find myself saying, Remember, in veterinary medicine, we have the privilege of being able to use euthanasia when the time is right, and often this affords our patients a level of dignity that isn't always allowed in the human profession, because this often rings true with many of our clients. When you are putting an animal to sleep, ensure that you prepare the animal and the owner.

For us, unfortunately, euthanasia will become almost a daily occurrence, but for an owner, it is an alien and terrifying prospect. Make sure the owner is aware of the process, listen to and answer their concerns, and help them as they take their animal through this final journey. There is never such a thing as a stupid question, but in the interest of trying to save your colleagues for the questions that aren't easily reachable, then do try to think about how you can answer some of the more simple ones yourself.

For instance, if you need to know the dose of a drug, look in the formulary. It's worth saying that you might not know doses now, but after using them daily, you soon will do. If you're going to do a simple procedure and there's no one around to ask, then have a look in the procedures guide.

It's actually really helpful. If you've got to give a vaccine that you don't usually use, again, look at the data sheet if you need to know the protocol. If you want to know about a specific practise protocol, then look in the practise SOP guide.

There should be one knocking around. And if you need to know how to run a lab test, then ask your nurse. If you are going to ask for help about a case, try to think about how you would approach it first.

Almost present it to your colleague as if you're in a ward round. If you have thought about what you would do, it helps with your learning, rather than simply asking your colleague for an answer. Try to ask more than one person questions.

Don't forget that all of your colleagues have their own job to do. So if you see several cases in one day where you need help, try to ask different vets, so you aren't inundating one person. Obviously trying to discuss the same case with the same vet though, as you might come unstuck if they advise two completely different things.

And do use all members of the team. Remember, reception will be able to advise you on pricing and the practise software, and nurses are an amazing resource that will be able to help you with practically anything. They'll guide you through your ox days, they'll help you with your lab tests and inpatients, and if you treat them with respect, they'll be willing to help you.

Especially if you're demonstrating a desire to learn how to do something for yourself, which is actually quite novel with some vets. If you are not sure of something, ask your nurse. Well, what do the others do?

Sometimes they might not feel comfortable telling the vet what to do, but actually they are often the ones with the most knowledge in certain things. Make sure you know how to escape a consult room to ask for help. Tell your client you're looking for a thermometer or a textbook.

Do be aware of who is around you and check before a consulting shift that they will be happy to help should you need it, which they should be because we've all been in your position. And don't be afraid of asking for help. If you need a second opinion, just be honest with the owner.

Use phrases such as, I'm fairly certain I want to do this, but I'm just going to get my colleague to look in and see what they think. Or, well, we all know two heads are better than one, so I'm just going to ring a colleague, as this is quite an unusual presentation. If a client has a problem with you asking for advice, then they are an idiot, because it's better to have someone who asks rather than someone who just bullshits their way through a visit or a consultation.

Don't forget you can also talk to your lab or referral centre for advice. These guys are often really helpful and can point you in the right direction when you are stumped by a case. One thing I often do when talking to a referral centre in an emergency situation is to ask what more I can do if the client cannot afford a referral.

These guys are super useful and usually love teaching. If you are referring something, make sure to ask the vet what drugs they want you to give or to not give, as it might affect their treatment plan when they receive the animal. Remember that you are in charge as a professional, so don't let a client make you feel inferior or stupid and try to have the upper hand.

For instance, when I go to an equine lameness, I will often start with, so what's the story or what leg is bothering you? I can't remember the last time I went to a doctor to get and asked him to guess which of my legs was painful. And equally there's no reason why you should tolerate annoying comments like, well, you tell me, you're the vet.

If you are having a rough day, then seek out your mentor or designated practise support, there should be someone in the practise that you can talk to if you're having any issues so that these can be resolved. Do make sure you focus on your life outside of work. Make sure that you maintain good contact with your family and university school friends, and sometimes it is easier said than done because you have all moved away far away and become busy in your own lives.

And there's no two ways about it. Your first few months in practise are going to be really tiring. With this in mind, book a holiday for about 6 to 8 weeks after starting your new job.

Even if it's just a few days around the weekend, it's something for you to focus on. If you work in a sociable practise, try to develop friendships within the practise. You don't need to become best mates with everyone, but it's often nice to get to know your colleagues in the pub or on a dog walk in an evening when you don't have the pressure of work weighing on both of your shoulders.

It is really important to make sure you have a hobby, whether it be a sport or a team activity, dog walking or buying a flock of sheep. It's good to have something to focus on outside of work. If you are ever really struggling and feel like you can't talk about it with friends, family, or colleagues, then don't forget there are loads of external sources that can help.

Charities like VetLife and the Samaritans are really, really useful, and there are lots of other online resources, including loads of forums where you can ask for help. Don't forget, a problem shared is always a problem halved. This really brings me to my last few points.

Remember, comparison is the thief of joy, I am told this often, and you need to learn to be happy with yourself. It goes without saying that everyone's experience is going to be different. You all have different goals and ideas about what a career in veterinary actually means to you.

So in my first week, I'd scrubbed into 3 cow C-sections. And yes, I could have shouted that from the rooftops, but I didn't actually go on a solo farm visit until the Saturday. Because on my second day, I was given a map and a list of houses to visit on the Welsh coast.

And on the Wednesday, I was squeezing anal glands in the front rooms of terraced houses in a random mining town in North Wales. And I'd crashed my car no less than 3 times on the same day, which isn't much to shout about. Everyone will get different levels of support and different exposure opportunities.

If you're a mixed vet, don't compare yourself to your best friend who has just started an internship at a dairy practise. The chances are they will do more routines than you. Or that friend who is working in a solely small animal practise.

Again, they're probably going to find themselves in theatre more often than you. First pitch space and first mastectomies and first GDVs, these are all easily measurable, but no one talks about their first reindeer postmortem, or the first time they dealt with a nasty client and handled the situation well. So try to be happy with your own development, use your GDP to your advantage to highlight the areas that you're happy with and the areas you need to work on.

And do be prepared for the unexpected. After about 6 months in practise, I was called to a cow with a cut. I bubbled off merrily to the farm 40 miles from the practise, and when I arrived was met by a very stressed farmer, saying, It's still in her.

I was confused and went on, and he went on to explain, she's fallen down a ravine ravine and landed on a branch, and it's still in there. I was then presented with this, a yearling heifer with a sizable branch very much attached to her. It had entered at the level of the jugular, slid under her scapular, made its way along the flank, and the tip of the branch was just bulging out of the skin on her caudal thigh.

This was a little bit more than a cut. I gave a colleague a quick ring, and to be fair, he simply said, we'll try to remove it, give it a clean and stitch her back up. I did warn the farmer that dislodging the branch might cause all sorts of problems, but in typical bovine style, she went on to heal just fine after a short course of anti-inflammatories and antibiotics.

And a year later a TB test, you couldn't have picked her out of a group. Another time I received a panicked call in the night from my boss. He simply said, I don't know what's happening, but there's loads of screaming.

It sounds like there's been an accident. You get going and I'll send the other on Corvette behind you. When I arrived on the farm, a lady ran out shouting.

She's on the floor, she's pushed all of her guts out, and it's stuck. As a farmer, I casually asked, And what is she? Apparently, when I heard the answer, I turned white.

She's a mare. By this point, I had seen approximately 5 horses during my career, and never had I seen a falling, yet alone one where the mare was lying on her side with a coat on hanging out of the back end and the head of a foal looking directly at us. We quickly deduced that sadly, the mare would not be surviving the ordeal, so we gave her some pain relief and performed a C-section.

To successfully retrieve the foe before putting the mare to sleep, neither me nor the experienced vet had ever seen anything like this, and certainly not in a horse, but we were still able to achieve a semi-successful outcome just by applying 1st 1st principles. It does just go to show that you will never predict every possible case that you might be asked to see. So what top tips can you do right now?

Well, if you're still a student, then use any remaining EMS to your advantage. Try to look at the situation as if you are the vet. When you're observing consultations or procedures, ask yourself, is that how I would have described that?

Would I have thought of that? What are the logistics of this situation that I would have to think about if I was the responsible one? When it comes to applying for and accepting jobs, then you do you.

If you want to start working as soon as you graduate, then do it. But if you do and you want a break, then that's OK too. Most reasonable employers aren't going to look dimly on you for that.

You don't have to do what your friends are doing just because. Do take some time to prepare when you're starting your first job, but don't overdo it. Remember that you do have a lot of knowledge in your head.

When you start working, obviously having a good work life balance is really important. That being said, if you do have quite a nice encore rotor, or if you aren't put on the encore rotor immediately, then ask your colleagues to ring you if you get anything interesting. One of my new grads asked me to ring on a Sunday recently, and she ended up coming to a colic, which turned into a euthanasia.

Because she was now there as a vet, albeit the second one, she actually could take in what I was doing logistically and how I was communicating from the point of view of being a vet rather than a student. And she said she found the experience really useful. And now feels like she could have a good go at it herself.

Obviously, you don't have to give up all of your free time, but just remember that often enthusiasm breeds enthusiasm. So if you show a willingness to stick around for that incoming welling rather than rushing home on the dock, then your colleagues are probably going to be more likely to want to help you when you need it the other way around. Equally, remember you have just spent 5 years in an educational institution surrounded by some of the most foremost specialists in their fields.

If you know something or learn something during CPD or when you talk to a referral centre or a lab, then pass that information along. Everyone wants to learn and develop, and knowledge and teaching isn't unique to the senior vets in your practise. So, in conclusion, go at your own own pace, try to prepare yourself as best you can.

Do work out how to help yourself. So have summary fact sheets, books and guides and apps to hand. Know who to ask and be prepared to ask for help.

Remember to be enthusiastic and spread, spread the knowledge that you have. Go into your first job with an open mind and be prepared to throw yourself in. And remember, look after yourself during your time off.

Remember, this is the first day of the rest of your life. Being a member of the vetting profession is awesome. Yes, it has its good and bad points, just like any other profession.

But as a general rule, you will find yourself working alongside some amazingly talented people doing a worthwhile vocational job. You have worked for a long time to get to where you are, so enjoy it. Remember you've got this.

That's That was fantastic, Nicole. Thank you so much. That is the sort of talk that I wish I had had before I, set foot in my first job in practise.

Lots of really, really useful tips there. So I would recommend that either, if you haven't made lots of notes, if sort of the first day in practise is something that's looming for you. Then, definitely get this on recording and watch it just before you start because so much useful stuff in there and a lot of stuff which, when you hear it sounds, you know, really obvious and sounds like common sense, but actually, you know, it's not gonna be something that you're gonna do without being told.

So thank you, Nicole, that was absolutely fantastic. I haven't had any questions in the Q&A box yet, but if you've got any questions for Nicole, use her while she's here. Please pop questions in that, in that box.

I just wanted to add on the apps, really great apps there. And actually, having all of that information in your phone is so reassuring, I find. And one thing I wanted to add was often exotics, as with my exotics.

Cat on. Often exotics and wildlife, sort of the species and the cases that come in that make people really panic. And there's a really great app called Veterinary Care of Exotics, and it's got some very basic common conditions, therapeutics, doses.

And it's just a handy little sort of basic tool to have in your pocket. So having, you know, downloading some of those apps is brilliant. Completely agree with what you said about finding an excuse to get out of the consult room.

I remember in my first job, frequently, deliberately leaving my stethoscope outside the room so I could be like, Oh, I'm so sorry. There's no stethoscope in here. I'm just gonna have to nip out while I frantically run around trying to find A colleague to ask.

And I think as you get more experience, you become much more confident at saying, actually, you know what, I'm not sure. But in those early days, it's, it's quite a daunting prospect to admit to your clients that you've got absolutely no idea. So, yeah, that's a, that's a really great tip.

That'd be sort of one of my top tips as well. So are there any other questions for Nicole? I went like a whirlwind.

There's nothing to. Nicole, I don't know, if you've, I, I don't know exactly who we've got on, on the, webinar this morning. But that's lots of tips for sort of the new grad, which is great.

Obviously, you've sort of passed that stage a bit now. What tips do you think would be useful for people that are sort of maybe the more experienced people in practise to help support those new grads coming in? Is there anything in particular that you do or that you really appreciated from your senior colleagues that if we've got any more sort of senior vets online, may be able to, to sort of take something from?

I think it's probably, remembering that like, I think there's there, there seems to be a very big focus on doing everything yourself in veterinary, but actually it is a it is a team sport and I think. You know, I've got younger vets that I will go to and have a case discussion about. And I think it's just making them feel, not that's not even making them feel, knowing that they're important, you know, they can add to a conversation just as much as a senior vet can.

And, you know, encouraging the, you know, communication and sort of case discussion amongst the whole team in general, I find quite useful, . And also with the With the younger guys coming in, just remembering, as an older vet, or slightly older vet helping them, that they have done a vet degree. I think sometimes I go very maternal and like, oh my God, they're never going to be able to do all of this because there's so much to remember and I remember how nerve-wracking it was when I was a student.

But actually, we've had a lot of graduates from Nottingham come through recently, and they're really well prepared. Like, they're just, I think, I think they must have a lot of first opinion, rotations, probably, cause I was at the RBC and. I think, I don't get me wrong, I thought it was great, but there was a lot of specialist level rotations.

And actually, I think you can tell that these guys have spent a lot of time in charity practises where they've just got used to talking to people, because I think actually talking is a really important part of the job. As much as some people don't like it, it is actually, you know. It is a huge part of the job, isn't it?

Yeah, I mean, if you're in a consultation realistically, you probably look at the dog for about 3 minutes and you talk to the client for the other sort of 10, so. Yeah. I think.

Absolutely. And I think it's important for us, sort of more senior vets as well to recognise that things have changed and we may not be completely up to date. So actually, often it's going to be the other way around, us going to the new grads and the sort of recently graduated vets and saying, Is this still what they teach you?

Is this still what the sort of the, those that are in the know are still saying? And that's really helpful as well for sort of making it a very much a team approach. One thing I would add as well, that picture of you in the orange top, where, whereabouts are you?

Is that is that's not the UK, that's Karao. That's exactly what I was going to say. So, I could tell that it's not the UK.

Something about it. You can just tell it's not the UK. In my first couple of years in practise, I did a lot of overseas charity, clinical, work, often surgical.

I was a relatively nervous surgeon when I started, and going out to work, particularly in Asia, where there's loads of lichiosis, which causes, bleeding. You can do a bleeding pitch spray in Thailand, then you can do one anywhere. And I think that really helps develop your surgical confidence.

So I would say for those of you that are maybe less surg less confident surgeons, that's a really good tip, and great fun, you know, great life experiences. That's something you can do. There's charities all over the world.

That are crying out for veterinary support. And it's very much chucking yourself in the deep end, but it's a, a very different kind of stress to working in UK practise. You often don't have the resources you need.

You're having to work with different drugs. You're, I remember sort of spraying surgical equipment and instruments with surgical spirits in between ops, because there was no other way of sterilising them. It definitely shifts your perspective a bit, and then you come back to the UK and you're like, Oh, this is great.

Yeah. So that's, that's that I found very useful. Sounds like you've done quite a bit of that as well, Nicole.

Yeah, I've just been to Karau over in Grenada a couple of times, which, is, is, is quite good. And it's a good balance as well, because it's not like insanely busy, so you do get a lot of time to go off and explore the islands as well, which I think is when you're having a holiday as a vet, then I think it is quite important to have a little bit of downtime as well. Yeah, definitely.

But yeah, I think if you can bosh through like surgeries in a, in a, you know, a, a different country, I think often, sweaty room in somewhere in the world. Yeah, where you're having to recover them like outside because that's the warmest place. But yeah, no.

I used to pick a place I wanted to go and visit and then find a, find a charity vet clinic in the area. Well it. I think that's a really good and, yeah, I, I'd like to do a bit more of that, to be honest, even, even now, but I think, .

Yeah, certainly in the first few years, getting yourself comfortable in practise and then going off and doing a bit of that I think is helpful. Yeah. Brilliant.

Well, thank you again, Nicole, for all of those wonderful tips. So much great information for everybody there. I hope everybody's taken a lot away from that.