Practice News
Training for Vets -stuff you probably didn't know....Tuesday 29th April, 2008
It's often a nice compliment to hear people say that training to be a vet must have been harder than training to be a doctor because we have to learn about so many different species. In truth the course is the same length (5 or 6years)and probably just as stressful (we still wake up in the night worrying about exams years later!).
Like doctors however graduating from University is not the end of our training. As an RCVS (royal colege of veterinary surgeons) Tier 3 hospital it is essential that we complete a minimum number of hours training each year. Our vets often choose to specialise in various directions which can provide the practice with a diverse array of veterinary specialties and reduce the need to refer our patients to specialist centres sometimes many miles away.
David McCormick (our longest serving vet)did a PhD in immunology -hence the Dr! before joining general practice. He is our resident walking encyclopeadia on most things but his real passion is orthopeadics and has been able to put many broken bones back together when saving the animals limb looked doubtful. He is currently training to be able to offer a new technique for reconstructing cruciate ligament injuries in dogs.
Katie Gemmel is our heart expert, using our ultrasound facilities to look inside hearts and identify problems so they can be treated most appropriately and providing longer happy lives for many of our patients. She is currently studying a medicine course along with Kate Tunley and looking forward to the exam next summer!!
Kate is a great all-rounder as she has to be running our Sunningdale branch single handed. She spent a year as an intern in The Royal Veterinary College (RVC) learning to work to the highest standards and gained a post graduate qualification in Soft Tissue Surgery last year before going on to do the medicine equivalent this year.
Elvin Kulendra is from a similar background to Kate having done a years post graduate training at the RVC, he is following in Davids footsteps with his bubbling enthusiasm for orthopeadics.
John Hardy came from Cambridge Vet School where he spent an extra year studying Pathology (disease) in depth and he has taken a keen interest in medicine. He is recently back from The British Small Animal Veterinary Conference in his home town of Birmingham.
I,(Andy Wyles), am like John enjoying the challenges a tricky medical case can throw at me. I have had further training in Cytology -looking at diseased cells under the microscope. I particularly enjoy Endocrinology -hormonal diseases, such as diabetes and thyroid disease. I recently completed a course on Veterinary Acupuncture which has aided some of our old stiff arthritic dogs to become more mobile as well as its many other implications.
So it's often only after Vet School that the real learning starts to take place and as the world of veterinary medicine advances at pace its important that our Vets at Runnymede keep up with it to ensure we can offer the best possible care to our patients.
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