September 2011 - Australian Veterinary Association

AVA Involvement At St Lucia
Ayrial Mammino (AVA senior student representative at UQ)
New graduate Support Scheme Testimonial
Dr Tessia Guilfoyle
The veterinary school at UQ is always a busy place. Lecturers
are busy filling students’ brains with all sorts of information
from biochemistry to surgical techniques and
even the odd clinical story from times long past. With such
a brain overload the students need to let their hair down
occasionally. By far one of the best events to do this at is
the annual UQVSA (UQ Veterinary Students Association)
ball where students and lecturers alike have trouble recognising
each other out of their day to day attire (hoodies
and uggs at the cold Gatton campus). The AVA is proudly
sponsoring this social event this year, to take place on
Saturday the 24 th of September.
Throughout the year the AVA has focused on helping inspire
and educate students by funding several extracurricular
activities and lectures for the students. These
events are always a hit because they give the students an
opportunity to learn outside the usual gruelling timetable
that can seem monotonous and overwhelming. Some of
the activities the students have enjoyed being able to experience
and participate in this year include:
Cattle dehorning and hoof trimming workshops
Cattle castration workshop
Cattle AI, pregnancy diagnosis and foetal ageing
workshop
Equine lecture seminars given by esteemed
lecturers and welcomed with
enthusiasm and interest by the students.
Topics covered included:
◊ Orthopaedic surgery – given by Dr Steven Zedler
◊ Diarrhoea in neonates – given by Dr Carlos Medina
◊ Endometritis in the Mare– given by Dr Wynn Collins
SIG (special interest group) workshop week (1 st – 5 th
August) where each night the students were given the
opportunity to be lectured on or participate in the following:
◊ Emergency bandaging in the horse workshop
◊ BAG (Bovine Appreciation Group) Mastitis dairy
panel session
◊ VOH (Vets in One Health) had two enjoyable lectures:
Dr Nigel Perkins recounted some of his experiences
as a vet in the epidemiological field and Dr Michael
D’Occhio gave a lecture entitled ‘Vets feeding
the world’.
◊ Professor Trevor Heath, Dr Phil Thomas, Dr David
Foote and Dr Liam Flannagan gave the students
practical advice on vet school and the world beyond.
◊ Dr Pearl Symmons and Dr Paul Eden gave the students
a taste of wildlife veterinary medicine over the
students lunch hours.
◊ As well as many other riveting activities.
The week was a great success and most importantly was
considered very worthwhile by the students.
VOH (Vets in One Health) night on the 22 nd August. We
were fortunate to have Dr Sophie Constable from
AMRRIC (Animal management in rural and remote indigenous
communities)talk about her work in Antarctica,
the Solomon Islands and in dog health and population
control in NT Indigenous communities. Dr Rowland
Cobbold also lectured on his career path in epidemiology.
Dr Ristan Greer spoke about her cross over into
human public health and medical research. Finally Dr
Allison Crook, Director of Animal Biosecurity and Welfare
at DEEDI (DPI) spoke about her career in government
work and role in the equine Influenza outbreak.
With the many extracurricular academic events and the
many social events scattered throughout the year a UQ
vet student’s calendar is never empty, just the way it
should be!
I am a mentor under the AVA
Queensland − Cenvet New Graduate Support Scheme
and I wish to let everyone know what a worthwhile and
very important scheme this is.
The first words of my newly graduated mentee, when I
made contact, were “Thank God you’ve called, I’m having
a really difficult time in my first job and need someone
to talk to!”
You can never underestimate the pressure new graduates
are under – the floor has been ripped out from under
their feet. Everything is new – the job, the location,
the profession, pressure of possible financial constraints
on both clients and employers and, of course, being removed
from an environment where they’ve been closely
surrounded by supportive peers for the past five years. It
can be hard to cope, while feeling overwhelmed and isolated.
It can be difficult to find someone to talk to who is
unbiased and removed from the situation yet who is supportive
and able to fully empathise with the new graduate’s
position.
By having this scheme in place I’ve been trained, as a
2
mentor, with the necessary tools to help my mentee think
logically through the difficulties he or she is having and to
come up with a “game plan” to improve the situation.
Regular follow-up calls and emails with the mentee ensure
that the problems don’t become insurmountable –
“a problem shared, is a problem halved”.
I’m very enthusiastic and excited by, what I believe, is a
necessary scheme that is well structured and provides
training in important life skills. A scheme such as this
was well overdue and it’s disappointing to think of veterinarians
already lost to the profession because there was
no such support available to them.
The program is an absolute credit to Dr Jodie Wilson and
the hard working AVA executive and administration
team. I encourage all veterinarians out there to become
a part of it. By giving back a little and looking after our
newer graduates we minimise the risk that they may become
disillusioned and “lost along the way”.
The New Graduate Support Scheme can only serve to
strengthen and unify this great profession of ours.