My name's Alex Hynes and I'm a veterinarian at the Animal Emergency
Service. I've been a veterinarian for 17 years now. Every day for me is different
because I'm director of the hospital, so there's the business side of it, and there's
the running of the hospital and that's what happens on a day to day
basis during the week. On a day like a weekend for example I'm in the hospital
as a clinician seeing emergency patients as they come through the door,
working the cases with a lot of the junior vets that come through and so I
love my time on the floor in the hospital but I also love the running of
the business as well. I did my veterinary training at The University of Queensland
and some of the best memories I have is probably the times that I spent with my
year group. I think going through five years of vet school together you form
really close friendships with people. There's some times where you're under a
lot of stress, I remember during swat vac and studying and we'd all be up in
the Anatomy prac lab and madly cramming to study for testing each other
and I don't think you realise it at the time, but just the, the bonds that you
form with those people, which I still have today, you know I still keep in really
close contact with a lot of those people even all these years later is just some
of the really special moments that I remember. I think some of the most
talented veterinarians that I know and not necessarily the ones that got the
highest grade when they went through Vet School. They're the ones who really put
themselves in the shoes of those pet owners, who take the time to understand
what it's like for them to see the emotions that they're going through and
work out how is the best way that they can come to a solution with them. So it's
not about telling them what needs to be done, it's about listening to their
situation and working out what is going to be the best plan for that
pet together. The advice I would give my 16 year old self would be not to put
myself under so much pressure. I remember then, I really wanted to get the very top
marks and I see now looking back at my journey to get to this point in my
career that really that wasn't necessary and I think a lot of the veterinarians
here take different pathways into Veterinary Science and for some of them
it might be choosing to do a degree like Science for example that's certainly
what a lot of them do, or for like my partner Gerado, for example, he chose a
completely different degree to start off as well, and so it's not all about having
to achieve those top marks to get into Vet Science if it's really what you want
to do and if it's really where your passion lies then as long as you pursue
that, there's a lot of avenues to get there. I think one of the biggest
benefits from going to a university like UQ for example, was when I went to work
overseas. I spent two years in Australia really getting the ground work of my
skills really down packed and then I made the decision that I wanted to go
over to the UK and work and get experience over there, and a degree from
The University of Queensland really opened the doors for me, I really had my
pick of where I wanted to work and I'd spend time at different locations around
the UK so that I got to see a lot of the different parts of the country and I
absolutely loved it, but there was never a shortage of people who would have
loved the opportunity to work with a graduate from UQ because i think the
skills that we have as graduates are just so practical and when you're
working in locum positions, like you are over there, they really want you to just
be able to hit the ground running, and that's exactly what i was able to do.
At the Animal Emergency Service we take UQ students through all the time, because we
really know that they have those practical skills and that they can hit
the ground running and not only that, they just have this keenness to learn so
they ask the questions, so they really become a part of our team and so we'll
really take any opportunity to help with their learning but also
they bring something to our Hospital as well.