Every little thing.. has changed!
It's nearing the end if week 4, so I think it's time that I updated you on some more of the academic points of university. Don't be too perturbed; if you want to be a vet, you'll share my excitement! So to give a little background: Liverpool Uni have had a syllabus re-vamp this year with clinical skills starting on day one! It's been fantastic!
Previously clinical skills would start to appear around 3rd year and by the time students started Clinical extramural studies (CEMS) they had barely learnt any of the skills required to really benefit from it. The vision is that we will be able to conduct a simple examination, injection, scrub in etc when we get there, thus making the best out of the time we spend in practice!
So far we have learnt a variety of things from suturing techniques, knot tying, lambing, bandaging, how to spay a cat (using an ingenious contraption) amongst many others! This is by no means to say I am anywhere near to mastering these.. However in four years time I hope to be (semi) competent before our final year on clinical rotations!
The beauty of this syllabus is that the clinical strands run parallel to the biological, histological, physiological, anatomical, biochemical (blah blah blah) strands - reminding you why you are here at 17:07 on a Friday in your 100th biochemistry lecture just as your eyes start to droop and all your friends had a half day!
Without wanting to bore you like an enthusiastic school head teacher, I'll leave it at that! Though, I may post some pictures of my bandaging techniques being honed on my poor patient dog back at home!