Page 58 - Eclipse - RVC Alumni Magazine - Autumn 2020

Through the eyes of a 2020 graduate
Alex Davies, BVetMed 2020
My entire time at vet school was leading to ‘finals’, the gateway to
the rest of my professional career as a vet.
In February 2020 I took a huge sigh of relief on completion of my clinical rotations and extra-mural studies, and preparations began for the final few hurdles; OSCEs and written examinations. Although the rising number of COVID-19 cases was dominating the media, I could not have predicted how my final months as a vet student would be so derailed and the opposite of any anticipations I had.
I cannot deny that anxiety took control when the UK went into lockdown in March. The panic and crisis sweeping across the globe was undeniably scary, especially when considering the health of my friends, family, and humanity at large. Possibly in a selfish way, the upheaval of normality was also a huge mental burden in respect to graduating and beginning employment.
Would I be able to graduate? Would examinations be different to what I had been expecting? Would there be any veterinary jobs available due to economic uncertainty? Had university prepared me for work amidst a pandemic?
So many different questions whirled around my mind, and nobody knew or could know the answers.
As each day passed by, new challenges and new questions presented themselves and for weeks,
I eagerly awaited the Principal’s email announcements to try and make sense of the world and my situation. I lost productivity and motivation, feeling disappointed that my remaining time as a student had been snatched away so unexpectedly. I managed to say
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goodbye, in-person, to only a small handful of friends, some of which are now thousands of miles away across the globe. Virtual gatherings, quizzes and viewing parties were a great way to stay in touch with the people that I had become so close with at the RVC, and I look forward to a time when we can all meet again.
As the lockdown progressed, the decision was made that OSCEs would be cancelled and written examinations would become open-book and online. It was also confirmed that the RCVS were fully supporting final year students to graduate on schedule. The culmination of these decisions provided a much- needed ‘light at the end of the tunnel’ moment for me. I finally knew that despite everything going on around me, I was back on track to graduating and achieving a lifelong ambition. This was all the motivation I needed to commit to revision and preparation for life as a vet.
I used some of lockdown to complete the RCVS Edward Jenner Veterinary Leadership Programme, acknowledging that as a new graduate in a profession that has had to adapt rapidly to unprecedented circumstances, I would need enhanced leadership skills.
I also became heavily involved in Medic Mentor’s veterinary division that was providing virtual support for aspiring veterinary students that were facing their own anxieties in the final months prior to their UCAS deadlines. As a result of my commitment to mentoring and education at Medic Mentor, I was offered the position of Chief Vet at the organisation that is now launching its own veterinary platform, Vet Mentor.
I also used the lockdown period to advance my research skills by completing a knowledge summary comparing treatments for feline hyperthyroidism and a PetSavers-funded research project exploring feline lymphoma. Leadership, mentoring, and research skills were priorities for me as a young vet, and I am proud I summoned the determination to improve these skills during lockdown.
Studying for an open-book exam was a new experience that required an adaptive approach to studying. It took time to accept that I still needed to ‘know the answers’ to any question thrown my way, as if it was under exam-conditions, and the open-book component was only there to check small facts or add detail. I got there in the end and on the day of the first exam, I sat at my desk with the same nerves and adrenaline to any other exam I have sat.
Results day came around in the blink of an eye and the absolute joy of finally becoming a qualified vet made me forget about anything else going on in the world. Celebrations with my immediate family in lockdown were not as elaborate as I had expected, but in many ways were more special.
The next event to look forward to was
the big graduation day! Knowing that
the RVC had already made plans for a 2021 in-person graduation softened the disappointment of a cancelled graduation ceremony this year. I was hugely grateful that the RVC put so much effort into the virtual event this year and it was amazing to see the other members of my course also graduate and achieve their dream. Even without the glamour and esteem of a real ceremony, the RCVS professional declaration still brought a tear to my eye.
From graduation day I had a four week wait until starting my first vet job. In August I joined a large small animal hospital in South Wales and I haven’t looked back since. Unsurprisingly, adaptations to cater to social distancing guidelines took some time to adjust to, but life as a qualified vet has gone above any of my expectations. I love being part of a multidisciplinary and animal-obsessed team; I love the variety of species and cases; I love meeting new clients; I love the problem-solving nature of the job; I