The joy of learning and developing is one of the greatest benefits of the veterinary profession. Now I’ve hopefully finished my CertAVP I am moving onto my postgraduate diploma (PgDip) and shortly hopefully my masters. I’ve decided to continue with the University of Liverpool for this as I like the online format that allows me to do this in my own time.
I’ve done something slightly different here as I have chosen to do two modules simultaneously for my PgDip. I am hopeful as I am combining one with my internship. And the second is taught separately that I will manage to keep on top of things here.
Introduction to Epidemiology
This is a taught module, and for me is one that I think will be very interesting. Both because of the current Covid outbreak, but also to understand the history and progression of diseases that I see in practice. One of the most common orthopaedic diseases is cranial cruciate ligament rupture, and I selected it to discuss in week 1. This disease has many different factors causing it. You can then take individual factors such as breed selection, or obesity to examine deeper. Going on into an examination of why breeds are selected, or factors causing obesity then makes this an amazing exercise into awareness of economics and sociologic factors.
Another reason I selected this module was because it looks a lot at study design, and investigation techniques. I hope this will help me when I come to looking at designing and running my own studies in future.
I am really looking forward to next weeks learning here!
Clinical Placement 1
Internships vary widely in structure. I have chosen to use the last part of mine to complete one of the clinical placement modules for my PgDip. This module for me is useful as it recognises and helps structure learning that is already happening through my internship.
I’ve chosen to focus on neurology here, looking at gait analysis and ataxia. In general practice I always found interpreting my neurological exam to be difficult. Simply because I did not have the experience to say what was normal or not, and more importantly had no one to ask. This meant that I would refer these cases on, unfortunately limiting my learning. Being in a neurology referral service I am at the other end. Which means I see these cases from when they come in through to when they leave.
This last week has allowed me to improve my interpretation of the neurological exam. As well as starting to learn to interpret the advanced imaging used for diagnosis here. For me this is priceless experience!
Looking forward
I start my week of nights this evening. The CAA has grounded all student pilots so this means there is no flying to look forward to after this. However I have a large reading list to work my way through. Hopefully I will also get some more of my book reviews finished.
