Tag: Stress

  • Screen burn: thoughts on telemedicine

    Screen burn: thoughts on telemedicine

    With the recent announcement that the UK’s first veterinary telemedicine service is set to launch, there is much debate over whether this type of service is a good thing. The major bugbear most vets have with telemedicine is the absence of a physical examination. While teleconsultations (or, indeed, just a telephone call) can allow a…

  • Que será, será

    Que será, será

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    What will be will be: this mantra is one of a handful of things that kept me sane during university exam season. Exam stress has definitely taken its toll, and, one week after finishing, I am still none the wiser as to what day it is or whether I’m coming or going – but that’s…

  • Always on: a new perspective

    Always on: a new perspective

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    It was a couple of weeks before I set off for Bristol and an uncertain, but exciting life on the vet course that my mother – who’s been a member of the medical field for many years – began pointing out various dogs and cats to me as we passed them, stating that, once I…

  • Money and medicine: compromising care for cost

    Money and medicine: compromising care for cost

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    Here’s a good way to start a blog: Victorian humour. Man: I say, Doctor, how’s that old chap you’ve been treating? Doctor: I fear he is beyond medical help. Man: Oh no! Is he dying? Doctor: No, he ran out of money. Hey, I never said it was a topical blog… Uncomfortable bedfellows In my…

  • Managing from the inside – what next in a personal medical crisis?

    Managing from the inside – what next in a personal medical crisis?

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    Alan Holford discusses the emotions he experienced when his mum became ill – and why owners sometimes misinterpret veterinary professionalism in difficult consultations for detachment.

  • Emotional stress

    Emotional stress

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    I nearly didn’t go… I was locuming at the time and  been away from home a lot. I’d also been working nights – the first time I had tried solely out-of-hours work – and it had been punishing. Why, then, was I coming to shadow a pathologist for a day in a veterinary laboratory? When…

  • Stress: your nemesis or superpower?

    Stress: your nemesis or superpower?

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    As a veterinary student, I’m certainly no stranger to stress. There’s a running joke within my friend group that “diamonds are made under pressure”, which helps us all to feel a little better when the pressure on ourselves begins to rise. But, whether it’s a coursework deadline or juggling my work-load with my social life,…

  • The client from hell

    The client from hell

    “Never work with children or animals,” advised WC Fields – I think I’d be inclined to add “the public” to that. While, on the whole, my client interactions have been good, every now and then you do get the occasional nutter. I’ve had drunk clients, barely able to stand up, let alone comprehend their half-bald…

  • The waiting room

    The waiting room

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    I recently had some “car trouble”. My heart sinks whenever this happens – not only because of the expense, or the hassle, or the stress, but because it means, yet again, I have to visit a mechanic. Despite my XY chromosomal status, I may be missing something important genetically, because I am not what you…

  • Don’t tar all dogs with the same brush

    Don’t tar all dogs with the same brush

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    Pit bulls, mastiffs and German shepherds are some of the breeds regarded by many as being aggressive and dangerous. In the same way some dogs are best known for shedding on beloved white furniture or having deep, dreamy puppy dog eyes, these breeds have an established reputation as dogs to be feared and not raised…