Introduction

As a vet, you have the choice of various professional pathways upon which to embark. This choice should be made with prudence, because the areas of activity in veterinary medicine today are often very specialised, and making a transition from one field to another, whilst not totally impossible, is at least not desirable. A change from one veterinary field to another such as from a small animal practice to a large animal practice implies a loss of acquired knowledge and some element of “starting again”. Before making the decision as to which field of veterinary practice you want to work in, take time to:

• Think about your goals – where do you see yourself in five and in ten years? What changes are coming up in your preferred sphere of the veterinary profession? How will these changes influence you and your daily work?
  
  
• Get some insights and experience in the areas you favour, for example, by volunteering in this field, in order to help you make an educated decision regarding your future professional career. This way, you can get valuable information that you definitely can´t get by reading and can only come from first-hand experience!
  
  Having said that you cannot get all the facts by just reading, you can still gain some good advice, and this chapter offers some practical steps to help you make the best possible start to your career as a veterinary surgeon.
  
  

Choose which field you wish to practice in

Think about the animals you will work with

Small animal medicine means providing solutions and services for pets living in a family, and that are playing the role of a companion or even the role of a child or life partner. Large animal practice is a very different kind of experience in which the vet is more of a livestock health manager for cattle or pigs, or as a doctor and coach for sports companions such as horses (Figure 1). 

Vets that try to cover all of these fields of the profession today are a somewhat endangered species, not least because they generally suffer from stress trying to constantly keep up with the veterinary specialists that exist in each of these areas.

Think about the environment you will work in

If you choose to embark on large animal practice, you have to keep in mind that you will be working outdoors in every kind of weather, at every time of the day and night, often travelling large distances daily and mostly being on your own. Another important dimension is that the legal regulations for the treatment of food production animals in most countries are getting more and more complex and increasingly influence the way the vets work. Typically, this increases the time spent on organisation and administrative tasks; something that could have a significant impact on job satisfaction and career progression.

In small animal practice, it is more common to work in a team consisting of vets and support staff such as nurses or receptionists. Small animals are brought into your facilities so that you can more easily control your working hours and environment, although there can be emergencies and house calls and, in some countries, mobile vet practices are becoming more and more popular. As with large animals, treating companion animals away from the clinic can be much more complicated when it comes to handling the pet, and is always limited from a diagnostic point of view. These are factors you should consider before deciding to be a mobile vet.

Think about the mindset of the owners you will meet

Another important issue when it comes to your choice of veterinary profession is to take account of the owner´s mindset, because this is something that you will have to deal with on a daily basis. The owner´s attitude towards their animal varies greatly between small and large animal medicine. Livestock owners make their living from breeding and/or keeping animals for dairy and meat production, whereas pets (with the exception of watchdogs and other companion animals that are used for commercial purposes) are mainly kept as a family member. These totally different aspects of animal husbandry lead to very different demands from your clients. In the role of the large animal doctor, you are mainly confronted with managing herds and so when considering the options for of a single animal it is very often a decision of life or death because a sophisticated treatment is likely to be uneconomic.

Even if pet owners are appearing more and more price-conscious, most decisions regarding diagnostics and treatment in small animal practice are not based on price alone – this business is much more emotional! Dealing with emotions and the often unrealistic expectations of owners is therefore a large part of small animal medicine; something that not all vets are prepared to deal with day after day.

General practice or specialist?

There are also clear differences in the interpersonal relationship requirements:

• General practitioners mainly interact with owners and it is their mastery of communication that will allow their technical competence to be effective, by ensuring the owner has an appropriate understanding of their animal’s condition, thus encouraging treatment compliance.
  
  

• Specialists communicate primarily with the general practitioner who referred the case to them, though this doesn’t always make it an easier task (Figure 2). They will probably also have to interact with the animal owner, although this can vary significantly from one specialist to another.

The greatest differences between the two occupations are revealed through career progression, particularly at the start of the career pathway.

• General practitioners are expected to be able to work as soon as they obtain their veterinary degree, and can start in a practice immediately. Obviously, this does not mean that they have all the skills they need, and their technical training should continue intensively during the first few years of their professional lives. For the rest of their career, general practitioners must follow a particularly difficult path of continuous professional development, as it must include a wide variety of disciplinary fields. While general practitioners must have appropriately high levels of technical competence and continue to maintain these for the duration of their career, any future career progression will depend on their other skills, including interpersonal, business and general managerial skills such as joining and assimilating into a group, leading colleagues, etc. Furthermore, in order to progress professionally general practitioners will have to acquire more advanced know-how in management and administration in order to take responsibility for an activity or facility within the organisation that employs them. Finally, general practitioners who become partners in an existing practice or who go on to create or buy their own practice will have to be capable of managing an entire business.
  
  

• Vets who want to become specialists usually follow an internationally recognized course of study, extending their knowledge with a medical internship, followed by a period of “apprenticeship” in a residency with a qualified specialist before taking their specialist examination (more details at http://ebvs.eu/colleges). This increases the initial training programme by another four to five years. Subsequently, the first part of their professional career will follow an essentially technical and scientific path. Nevertheless, interpersonal, business and managerial skills should not be neglected. Their remaining career progression will either be entirely technical and scientific, for example, taking several roles in several different hospitals, or, more rarely, it may include a managerial and administrative element, as they become practice partners. New start-ups and buyouts are rarer for specialists because of the costs involved.

The career progression options defined above have differing financial consequences: Specialists earn far less than general practitioners during the early part of their careers, although the generalist’s working conditions are harder. Subsequently, the differences are less pronounced and depend more on workplace structures. Particularly brilliant veterinary specialists often earn more, but some general practitioners can also achieve high salaries, particularly if they take on additional responsibility or set up their own practice.

In the end, the differences between the two occupations serve to highlight that the choice between them should not be based on any cultural value system or a “romantic” vision of either role, but that it should, where possible, be an informed decision based on personal aspirations and skills.

Getting clinical experience

Look for options

Be proactive

Check your choice

It is always a good idea to check out several options if possible, because then you can compare the offers! Here are some important points you should raise during your interview:

• Does the facility have experience of, or even a plan for, educating volunteers?

• What would the boss/the team expect of you? For example, are you allowed to take on simple tasks that match your abilities?

• What will your working hours be? Are you expected to be present or cover the emergency hours?

• Will there be a salary and/or reimbursement for travel costs?

• What is the minimum and maximum duration of a volunteer’s stay at the clinic?

Try to be relaxed and feel free to also ask any other questions that are important to you. There are no stupid questions; remember, you are a beginner! Take notes during the interview and end the meeting with an agreement as to how and when you will be told if you are going to be accepted as a volunteer, unless you are both so impressed that you agree to start work immediately! Never leave a clinic not knowing how your application is going to proceed! Afterwards, take some time to review your notes and the feelings you had during your meetings so that if you are fortunate enough to get an offer, you can reflect if you felt welcome as a colleague and whether it is somewhere you can gather valuable experience with someone that is willing to let you look over their shoulder. You should try to keep away from people and clinics that give the impression that you will be merely tolerated as a free staff member. Generally, they are not worth your time, even if you are slightly desperate to get the job, because there are always better options coming up!

Gaining confidence to make your own medical decisions

Having a professional network is also helpful when managing the “human incidents” that come with the veterinary profession: your team and your clients. There are always some incidents that occur that can be funny and nice to share, but from time to time there can also be difficult situations that make your professional life really tough. This could be your first euthanasia of a dog belonging to an elderly person who is living alone or a big row with a client about your fees or the treatment of their pet. Discussing these events with somebody from “outside” can be very helpful because they are professionally distanced from the incident. As such, they can help us to review our own behaviour and to provide input and tips for handling such cases when they occur the next time.

A professional network also contributes to a healthy work-life balance because getting feedback from your fellow professionals means dealing with medical cases or human issues inside your profession rather than taking these things home. Discussing cases with your family and friends prevents us from making the separation between our work and our private life. If some people in your professional network are also friends, then it should be part of the network-concept to discuss work at work and not at home, and “shop-talk” during gatherings with friends and family should be a tightly restricted exception.