Hello, my name's Laura and
I'm a final year student at Nottingham.
And I'd to tell you a little bit more about
what final year is like for us.
Fifth year consist of lots of
rotations organised by the university.
These are two-week blocks at different hospitals,
first-person practices or in charity medicine.
And then you also spend the rest of
the time doing Extra Mural Studies.
Extra Mural Studies is also called EMS,
and you organise these yourself.
In order to graduate as a vet you need to be competent
dealing with all species. So that is equine,
farm animals, birds, exotics,
small animal, and also pathology and veterinary public health.
So the rotation need to cover all of these topics.
We require lots of support.
So we got support from our tutors.
You have a tutor family.
We also have the placements office.
The placements office are really good at replying
quickly so you can tell them
any emergencies, any issues. Equally if you're trying to
book a new placement, they can give you
advice on other people's experiences.
This is really important because
if the specific area that you feel
particularly week in and you
want to develop skills in that area.
You might want to find out if that placement provides
opportunity to develop those specific skills.
My most favourite part about fifth year has been actually putting
my skills into the job. So your surgical,
your practical, your communication skills.
They all come together when you're on placement and you
do generally feel like an actual vet.
Because you can organise the EMS yourself,
many people use this as an opportunity to study abroad.
So you might broaden your surgical skills by going
on a spay and neuter clinic.
Or some people study wildlife in
South Africa. The options are totally up to you.
Final year is busy.
But I've still managed to keep time to myself so I can keep quite a
good work/life balance, so I've really enjoyed it.
I found my placement year really,
really fascinating and I
would say huge thank you to Nottingham for
organising it and allow me to have
opportunities I have had. Thank you.