ICC Clinical Years Day 7 - FANTASTIC ECC DAY.

Chest drain placement.

The first week of the introductory clinical skills week comes to a close. What an exhilarating and   very busy week it was too!

Since the first day I blogged the rest of the week has been a mix of radiography lectures, triage, care of the in-patient and other much interesting stuff :). I must say both the fluid therapy and radiography lectures went over my head but I'm going to use today to learn the basic principles. We've had a lot more small animal focused stuff in the past week and its been awesome. I can say it may just be the best week of lectures in vet school so far :D

Friday saw a mix of small animal toxicology lectures (a lot of information there!) and then a visit to Aintree. We got to go behind the scenes and it was really interesting to learn about the veterinary suites they have there, the rationale behind the grand national jumps and we got to see a stable tour :D. Each stable box has the name of a grand national winner above it if the winner had that box, exciting. 

  

The best day of the week has got to be the SVECCS day I had yesterday. This is emergency critical care society (student) which is new to Liverpool vet school. It put on its first fantastic day. We had an inspiring lecture from the European President from Vets Now who are based in Glasgow. They do a 10 week course for new graduates who have been out at least six months in practice- salaried and also counts towards CPD hours. It seems like it gives a lot of confidence in both out of hours and emergency work. This will be something I am seriously considering when I graduate. Whilst I don't think I want to specialise in small animal emergency care, this course sounds pretty amazing. It is known as the vets now cutting edge programme. 

CLICK HERE FOR WEBSITE LINK.

If you check this out, it looks like an amazing opportunity. 

Placement of oesophagostomy tube and incisions.

The day went on to provide a taster of the range of critical care skills we might need. This started with a lecture in ultrasound and a practical for abdominal ultrasound. The woman leading this was very good at explaining the ultrasound imaging and even at the beginning of my clinical course I feel like I know a lot more about ultrasound and how to work it than I did- brilliant. The afternoon followed with clinical techniques on cadaver specimens. The vet leading this was again very good at both explaining and helping people with the techniques. Group were kept small throughout the day (4 people per dog ultrasound for an hour, 2 people per cadaver specimen for 2 hours) and we practiced chest drains, oesophagostomy tubes, epidural injections and bitch urinary catheterisation. Definitely the most practical I've ever had so far and each technique was explained and practiced with surgical equipment and from a purely surgical viewpoint with a emergency critical care emphasis for its uses. I would recommend any new recruits to Liverpool vet school to seriously consider coming on one of these societies courses- fantastic day.