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XLVets Practice
Focus
02
small
talk
The XLVets Small Animal
Graduate Development
Programme was launched in
September 2015 and has been
very well received. I was one
of the 12 course participants
and have really enjoyed and
benefited from the course. The
course consisted of 5 modules,
each tackling a different area
of veterinary practice. The
participants were all recent
graduates from XLVets
practices throughout the UK.
The first two modules were held
at Larkmead Veterinary Group
in Oxfordshire. Day One focused
on managing oneself - talking
about our strengths and
weaknesses, our fears and
threats and thinking about time
management and client
management. It was also a
fantastic opportunity to get to
know each other, and to talk
about our first few months in
practice. The second day was
all about practice finance, and
involved several practical
exercises to help us gain a basic
understanding as to how money
is spent in a veterinary practice.
It really made us appreciate just
how much money is needed to
run a practice, and therefore
how important it is for us to
charge our time appropriately.
The third and fourth modules
were based at Pride Veterinary
Centre in Derby, and were
probably my favourite of the
course. These 2 days focussed
on Emergency Medicine. We
discussed several common
emergencies in detail, including
the clinical signs, the tests
needed to diagnose and how
to treat animals with these
common conditions. This was
an extremely useful exercise. I
feel that we all left that course
feeling more confident in our
ability to handle emergencies.
The final day of the course
was held at Cain Veterinary
Centre in Powys. This day
focussed on all aspects of
practical pharmacology; looking
at the classification and
authorisation of medicines, the
rules on prescribing and
dispensing certain medicines,
and record keeping. We also
talked about the use of
antibiotics, a very prominent
topic at present. In the
afternoon we had a chance
to talk about some of the
challenges that we had faced
in practice, and steps that
we used to overcome them.
This was a very interesting
and useful exercise. It was
comforting to know that my
concerns and experiences are
shared by others!
I enjoyed all five days of the
course. The XLVets course
leaders were all fantastic -
their enthusiasm for their
subject was obvious and they
made the course interesting
and enjoyable.
XLVets invests in its people by
supporting new graduates and
helping them to progress and
achieve the clinical excellence
XLVets and their member
practices strive for. This is
always with the end goal in
mind - the health and welfare
of our patients.
XLVets and Your Practice
Small Animal Graduate Development Programme
Carlie McMillan BVMedSci,
BVM, BVS, MRCVS
Severn Edge Veterinary Group