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How’s the Nurse Internship going, Jodie?

We introduced you to our Nurse Interns back in November, (click here to meet them!). The 12-month internship caters for qualified veterinary nurses with no prior referral experience, and aims to equip them with referral-specific skills. In this blog we’re checking in with Jodie to see how it’s going…

What’s been the highlight of the internship so far?

Visiting the different departments of the referral hospital is helping me figure out which areas I enjoy most. This will hopefully help me decide which route I want to take my nursing career in and whether I want to specialise, so the rotations have been really valuable! Also meeting and working with the other nurse interns! It’s been really nice to have people going through the same experience so we can all support each other.

What’s been the most interesting case you’ve seen? 

There have been so many! Most days you see cases that you would never see in the majority of general practices and every day I see interesting cases. Cardiology interventions have really stood out to me; Balloon valvuloplasties and pacemakers. Various medicine cases have also been very interesting, including cases of IMHA where I assisted in bone marrow biopsies, management of Subcutaneous Urethral Bypass devices, placing feeding tubes, etc! 

What’s the most useful referral nursing tip you’ve picked up so far? 

That there is never a stupid question. When I first started I was a bit nervous to ask questions for a short amount of time as I thought I would come across as stupid, but the majority of people have been through the change from general practice to referral so understand that and the majority of the time will be happy to answer any questions.

Have you enjoyed your time on a particular service, and why?

It’s been quite hard to pick, there have been aspects of all departments I’ve enjoyed. But I’ve particularly enjoyed my time in the Cardiology department and in Wards. It surprised me how much I enjoyed learning about the heart and going into more detail about the pathology and treatment options available and being able to work with nurses like the cardiac nurses who are so knowledgeable. It’s really inspiring to work with them and makes me want to pursue a specialist area and to have that level of knowledge. I also really enjoyed working in wards as you are involved with cases from all departments and you gain so much experience from nursing different kinds of cases. I enjoyed the fast pace and spending quality one-on-one time with my patients. 

I still have 3 more departments to visit so there’s a chance my answer may change by the end of the internship!

Thank you for reading! To meet the rest of our wonderful team, click here.

Take care,

Team Ralph

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