Internships at B&W Equine Hospital

Introduction

Structure of the internship

There are four interns which rotate through the following services on a weekly basis. During the first three months of the programme the emphasis will be on anaesthesia training which will be supported by specialist anaesthetists from the University of Bristol, senior interns and experienced anaesthetists. Although the interns are on separate rotations they work as part of a team alongside a big team of qualified veterinary nurses and patient care assistants. 

Anaesthesia 

Interns are not expected to have any prior anaesthesia experience and full training will be provided. We work with the University of Bristol anaesthesia team who will be part of the training programme, along with senior vets with significant anaesthesia experience as well as senior interns.

Over the first three months of the internship the emphasis is on learning anaesthesia, and during this time you will always have back up (including out of hours). Once you have been ‘signed off’ you will then perform all anaesthetics (during routine hours) in your anaesthesia week.  

Medicine 

The emphasis during this rotation is on providing excellent in-patient care of medicine and surgery cases (along with a dedicated in patient nurse) as well as working up out-patients and emergencies with the hospital specialists. The medicine case load is varied and includes neonatal foals, post-operative colics, eye cases and everything in between.

We have a large dental caseload which are referred in to see our dental specialist and during this rotation, the intern will be involved in these, learning how to perform routine dental procedures as well as the approach to more advanced cases. You will be able to scrub in on select cases during your medicine and surgery week.  

Surgery 

The emphasis during this rotation is on providing excellent in-patient care of surgery cases (along with a dedicated in patient nurse) as well as working up out-patients and emergencies with the hospital specialists.

The surgical caseload is varied, with around 500-600 orthopaedic and soft-tissue surgeries performed each year, including those performed under general anaesthesia and standing sedation.   You will be able to scrub in on select cases during your surgery week.  We have a large dental caseload which are referred in to see our dental specialist and during this rotation, the intern will be involved in these, learning how to perform routine dental procedures as well as the approach to more advanced cases. 

Diagnostic orthopaedics 

During this rotation, you will work with our orthopaedic vets, helping with lameness cases, and learning how to choose, acquire and interpret appropriate diagnostic images. Radiography is one of the key skills and the emphasis on this rotation initially is learning how to take good quality radiographs and interpret them.

You will work with our experienced team of dedicated imagers as well as with a diagnostic imaging specialist. Interns on this rotation are also responsible for acquiring nuclear scintigraphy images – bone scans occur a maximum of three days a week in the afternoons. You will also be involved in helping acquire CT images including standing and GA scans.

Although the hospital has a high MRI caseload, interns are not expected to perform MRI scans although are encouraged to learn about the process and interpretation of images.  

On call 

You will share the on call duties (weeknights and weekends) equally with your intern mates. When on call, interns stay on site in provided accommodation and have responsibility for admitting emergencies and providing in patient care.

We also have a two nurses on duty each night who also stay on site to assist with these duties. Each night there is both a senior medicine clinician and a surgeon on call who will admit all emergencies with the intern and be available to provide advice for in patient issues. If a night on call has been busy, then we make every effort to send the on call intern home early the following day. During the busy on call times (typically during the foaling season) we revert to having a dedicated night rotation, where night interns only work during the night and have no daytime duties.  

What happens during the internship?

The four interns start at staggered intervals during the year which allows for training of the new intern by the more senior interns. Both new and recent graduates are welcome to apply and although 6 months or more of experience is ideal it is not a prerequisite. Interns will be trained to perform the duties of the job by their senior interns, senior vets and the nursing team. Individual case responsibility/decision making is not expected but as the programme progresses interns will be given more case responsibility. Our aim is to train our interns to be competent in all the skills required of an ambulatory vet and to prepare them for whatever post-internship job they are aiming for.   

Internships are hard work but our programme allows for a good balance between seeing lots of cases and allowing time for rest.  

Interns are enrolled on the CVS New Graduate Programme which allows for 10 days of funded CPD per year (including a BEVA Fundamentals course, access to VetPD panel discussions and an elective week with funding), attendance at BEVA Congress (one day) as well as a dedicated New Graduate mentor. Within the practice we have weekly seminars provided predominately by the senior vet team which allow for structured learning on a range of topics. We encourage interns to undertake a small research project or write up a case report for publication, and will support you through this process.   

Our vet team also provides veterinary cover for Badminton and Blenheim Horse Trials, Cheltenham racecourse and several other equine sporting events – interns get to enjoy a day at one of these competitions, accompanying the on duty vet. 

The application process

We prefer applicants for the Internship to have 6+ months of post-graduate experience, although this is not a prerequisite. Spending time at B&W Equine Hospital, prior to application for the role, is encouraged.  Applicants for the position must hold a veterinary degree that is registerable with the RCVS and applicants should send a CV and letter of intent only in response to an advertisement. Internship posts are advertised on the BEVA jobs website, careerswithcvs.co.uk and our social media.

For further information, please email imogen.johns@bwequinevets.co.uk or jo.suthers@bwequinevets.co.uk