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• Time for a change?
  Jeremy Naylor
  Published on: 9 February 2017

• Published on: 9 February 2017

  Time for a change?

  • Jeremy Naylor, Veterinarian

  Reading this piece by Sophie Walsh was like feeling a breath of fresh air on a hot and sticky summer's day. We constantly hear how stressful life is as a vet, the high rate of mental illness, addiction and suicide, the physical danger (at least in equine work), the high rate of dissatisfaction and colleagues leaving the profession and the difficulty of recruiting suitable candidates to jobs in practice. While, of course,...

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  Reading this piece by Sophie Walsh was like feeling a breath of fresh air on a hot and sticky summer's day. We constantly hear how stressful life is as a vet, the high rate of mental illness, addiction and suicide, the physical danger (at least in equine work), the high rate of dissatisfaction and colleagues leaving the profession and the difficulty of recruiting suitable candidates to jobs in practice. While, of course, these are very serious issues and must be addressed by the profession and in particular those in positions to make key decisions, it was refreshing to hear another side. Sophie has eloquently portrayed from her own experiences how versatile the veterinary qualification is in providing opportunity for a wide range of interesting and rewarding career options.

  While no-one is any doubt as to the hard work and achievement involved in completing a veterinary degree in the UK, there are many degree courses that are just one year shorter and in other countries, such as the USA, the veterinary training is, for most, a four-year postgraduate programme with most students having completed a four-year undergraduate degree first. So the point I make is that a five-year course is perhaps not such a great imposition and provides not only an excellent vocational training but also develops, as Sophie points out, a huge range of skills that can be applicable to the whole range of career options open to non- vocational degree students. In a practical sense, it also provides the opportunity to derive an income from locum work, which as in Sophie's case and my own at different times, can be very helpful during times of transition.

  We are living in an age where it is not as uncommon as it was previously for people to change career paths through their working lives. There is no shame in this and, for many people, change can be beneficial. I for one have enjoyed a varied career progression, starting in private practice, then undertaking a residency training in the USA and a higher degree at home, a position as resident vet to a champion racehorse trainer, a lectureship and referral clinic/research job at a veterinary school, a number of years as a public racehorse trainer, and now back to running my own private practice. While it has not all been plain sailing (I'm sure that's no different to any other walk of life), I have enjoyed the varying challenges of each of these roles, and have returned to first- opinion practice with a fresh outlook. If and when my enjoyment of this work diminishes, I hope that I shall have no reservation in looking for alternative challenges anew.

  I hope that anyone in the profession reading Sophie's piece and my few words and feeling that they are in a dead-end job with nowhere to go, can find some solace here. Maybe this can sow a seed of hope that might grow into the confidence to utilise the skills you have acquired from your unique and valuable training to gain fulfilment in a new or allied career path?

  Conflict of Interest:

  None declared

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  Conflict of Interest:
  None declared.

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