A WEEK DAY IN A LIFE OF A PENNARD’S VET SEVENOAKS BRANCH
07:45 – 08:00: I’ve usually arrived at the practice
so I can settle in, check messages/emails and peruse the diary for the day to
familiarise myself with patients coming in for the day.
08:00-08:30: This is the time when ward rounds
are done where we have a ‘hand over’ of any patients seen out of hours the previous
night. It is also the time to catch up on any ‘in patients’ that I might have
admitted during the previous day. It gives us the opportunity to formulate the
plan for the day for the patient, do a physical examination and also call
owners with an update on how their beloved pet is doing.
08:30-11:00: This is where life gets interesting.
We have a rota which changes on a daily basis so ours days are never the same.
For instance, today I was in the hospital on ‘operations’, so from 08:30-9am I was
admitting day patients for their procedures.
Another day I might be on consultations.
This morning we had an emergency where a dog
was brought in after being involved in a road traffic accident. One of the consulting
vets admitted the dog as an extra on the morning consult list. Obviously this
does delay the other consultations when this happens but we are lucky that
clients understand. Naturally the dog took precedence over the other
procedures/operations booked in for the day. Once the adrenaline of dealing
with such an exciting/traumatic emergency had settled down and we had
stabilised the patient normality resumed. We also had a visiting specialist who
performed a few ultrasounds for us on complicated cases and who could take
special ultrasound guided biopsies for us.
11:00 – 13:00: I will either be in the full swing
of surgery by now, in the midst of consulting until 1pm or finishing up my 11am
consults. The vet that finishes at 11am has the responsibility of checking the
prescription diary and dispensing the medications before going up to the
hospital to help out with any operations/investigative procedures. It is also
at this time (if the hospital isn’t too busy) that we may do urgent house calls.
14:00 – 16:00: I may be on afternoon consultations
at this time.
However, if I am not consulting I use these
two hours to perform checks on my hospitalised patients or just give them a
cuddle (I do like to give my patients lots of kisses much to the amusement of
my colleagues). I also use this time to catch up with paper work (which there
is a lot of), call owners with any test results/answering queries or doing
referrals. House visits that we were unable to do in the morning are also
arranged for this time. Occasionally, we also do any extra emergency consultations
or procedures that have been admitted in the afternoon. We also try to help out
our consulting colleagues if they are running late (generally because one or
two consultations are more involved than anticipated).
Clients
often ask or wonder why our telephonists question them about why they are
requesting an appointment; this is usually so booking can be performed so the
vet has enough time to discuss the many problems a patient may come to us with.
In this way we try to reduce waiting times but this is not always possible.
16:00-18:00: Afternoon consultations, if we are
fully staffed the vet who will have started consultations at 2pm might be on
‘office’. Again Office time might be just that i.e. to catch up with paper work
and making/taking calls; however it can also involve seeing extra emergency
appointments, house visits or emergency surgery. Last week during this time we
had a stitch up one day, a run of grass seeds that needed to be removed from
various ears and abdominal x-rays on a suspected ‘foreign body’ being trapped
somewhere along the intestines. It’s during this time that clients can come and
visit their pets if they are hospitalised, an important part in their recovery
I feel.
18:00 -19:00: Although consultations have
stopped, the phones are switched over to the emergency mobile and the doors are
closed, we still have some work to do. This entails evening ward rounds to hand
over the inpatients to the out of hour’s emergency vet and discuss the
treatment or investigative plan for the evening. It also gives me an
opportunity to call owners and give them an update on their pet in hospital. I
understand how worried owners must be if they have an ill pet in hospital so I
try to make contact as much as possible. I also like to call owners if any
tests results have come in later in the afternoon, as it’s one less thing to do
tomorrow.
19:00: Hopefully I am at home/leaving to go
home to have dinner or when I am not feeling super lazy may be some exercise….
