Memorandum submitted by Mr Douglas Palmer,
BVMS, MRCVS (W11)
I am writing to express the concerns of the
new graduates in farm animal practice. The nature of the job and
associated commitment presents a number of challenges to the new
graduate.
Anybody starting in a new job faces finding
their way around the practice, the area and meeting lots of new
people. The new graduate also faces the challenge of making diagnoses
and treating conditions for the first time by themselves. If problems
arise there cannot always be a more experienced person close at
hand to help out. Fortunately in this day and age the mobile phone
can be very useful here.
The expectations of clients is rightfully high,
however can a new graduate be as good as a more experienced senior
colleague? With poorer incomes on farm, farmers increasingly see
calling the vet out as a last resort. As a result you are treating
animals in a more advanced state of illness than if you were called
out earlier. This will inevitably reduce your success rate and
therefore farmer confidence in you. A vicious cycle develops often
resulting in the vet not being called. Can this be good for animal
welfare?
With lower incomes farmers can frequently only
justify one visit. Making definitive diagnoses and instigating
good treatment in one visit can be tricky.
With less money on farms, there is less available
labour. Tasks that are labour intensive, like dehorning can be
very slow with only one person to help.
Less contact with stock on farm means that disease
surveillance is not possible and becomes reliant on the stockman.
Health and welfare standards can fall and with no direct veterinary
contact, farmers can find it hard to retrieve the situation themselves.
The "on-call" commitment presents
a number of difficulties in itself. In small animal practice,
"on-call" rotas of 1 in 12 are quite feasible by joining
with neighbouring practices in the towns. In farm animal practice
this is often not possible. The nearest neighbouring practices
may be 20 miles away. This limits your rota to the number of people
working in the practice and the need for a second "on-call".
A 1 in 4 rota in farm animal practice is usually the best that
can be achieved.
Many new graduates find sleeping whilst "on-call"
difficult. Being "on-call" would be far easier if you
knew what was going to happen! It does not work like that! Any
new graduate would be lying if they said that they had not been
apprehensive about what may happen on their night "on-call".
Many new graduates find themselves watching the clock or telephone
for most of the night.
A call which is awkward through the day can
be twice as bad in the dark.
Another aspect of night work is security. In
small animal practice it would be reasonable to refuse to do a
house call at night but to offer a consultation at the surgery.
This is not possible in farm animal practice, though is it safe
for vets (more often female now) to go to remote farms in a new
area to see clients they may not have met before?
On leaving the relative comfort of university
the new graduate in farm animal practice often finds themselves
in a new area far from friends and family. With being "on-call,"
finding the chance to meet new friends in the area can be tricky.
Friends in the same profession can understand the challenges faced,
however being "on-call" often at different times can
make keeping in touch awkward.
Busy days on a steep learning curve can be mentally
draining; this combined with the "on-call" commitment
will explain why many new graduates feel tired. Is it surprising
that many new graduates crash practice cars in their first years
in practice?
The Competition commission report quotes that
the BVA and RCVS "doubted whether discharging these obligations
[providing a 24-hour emergency service] was particularly onerous".
This demonstrates how far they are out of touch with the practitioners
on the "front line".
I hope this provides some insight into the challenges
faced by the new graduate in farm animal practice.
25 April 2003
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