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Enough work experience?

I am hoping to apply to study veterinary medicine and am worried I haven't got enough experience. I couldn't get a placement with a farm vet and had to cancel my lambing placement as I was ill.

So far I've done:

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2 weeks small animal practice

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1 week equine practice

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1 year volunteering every Saturday at an animal shelter looking after rabbits

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1 week kennels

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1 week battery hen farm

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1 morning in a human histopathology laboratory

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1 week public farm including dairy

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1 week dairy farm and then helped out with Saturday afternoon milking for a year

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2 weeks riding stables and then helped out every Sunday for 4 months

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3 weeks donkey sanctuary

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1 day abattoir

Reply 1

vee_wuvshugs

Original post by Nyupmeep

Dude that's way too little - what are you playing at??

(edited 9 years ago)

Reply 2

Little Tail Chaser

Original post by Nyupmeep

Where are you planning on applying? Your work experience so far is extremely impressive and you've managed to cover a lot of the basics as well as doing a few fancier placements, which is very commendable :smile:

. That will be plenty for most places, but Liverpool, which has the highest work experience requirements of all UK vet schools, does unfortunately ask for four weeks at veterinary clinics and from the looks of things you currently have three (although doing both small animal and large animal vet work is fab). Taking a look at the 2014 Veterinary Medicine Stalking Page might be worthwhile, as you can see on there the amount of work experience that successful applicants had (although it's often given in number of weeks with no indication of variance of placements so it's not flawless).

Original post by vee_wuvshugs

Dude that's way too little - what are you playing at??

hilarious but can u not

Reply 3

Nyupmeep

Thank you for your advice. I'm not sure yet where I'm applying but it's between Liverpool, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Bristol and Nottingham. I wanted to apply to Liverpool but am not sure if they would even consider me if I don't have 4 weeks veterinary work experience upon applying - would they consider it if I booked a week to complete after applying?

Reply 4

Little Tail Chaser

Original post by Nyupmeep

I'm not sure I'm afraid. I'd suggest sending them an email/calling them to ask. Calling is probably better as you'll be able to get a reply straight away. Now is a pretty busy time for the admissions tutors, and I emailled them about a month ago to ask a similar question but have yet to receive a reply :tongue:

I'm pretty sure that they give out a work experience questionnaire to all applicants that meet their grade requirements, and that has a section to fill in about planned placements and placements that couldn't be completed for whatever reason. I seem to think that they count planned placements up until December, although that could be completely wrong :tongue:

. I'm not sure if planned placements are allowed to contribute towards the compulsory ten weeks or whether they have to be completed prior to application, either, sorry.