Healthy Information  

I studied veterinary medicine in Belgium, at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ghent University, graduating and qualifying as a veterinary surgeon in February 2017.

The faculty's veterinary curriculum consists of two consecutive 3-year degrees, a Bachelor of Science in Veterinary Medicine followed by a Master of Science in Veterinary Medicine.

The Master degree includes a specialisation and my choice went to Research & Industry because it offered additional insight into veterinary research, veterinary pharma, public health and its legislative framework, etc. In other words, it provided 'the big picture' of the various interconnected industries in the animal-related sector.

WORKING in PRACTICE

In May 2017 I became a member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. A few weeks later, in June, I moved to Scotland and on the 1st of July 2017 I started my first job as a new graduate vet in a small animal practice.

During the following years, I worked in several veterinary practices, both independently and corporation-owned, set up in urban and rural areas, made up of larger or smaller veterinary teams.

Some of my colleagues were general practitioners, others were recognised specialists, but all of them taught me how to give the best possible care to the patients entrusted to me, including the most important lesson, that excellent patient care can only be provided as a team.  

Prior to my veterinary qualifications, I studied Philology (English Language and Literature) and worked in a few roles centred around writing, translating, proofreading, editing and content creation.

As a vet, this communication-oriented skillset turned very handy, but soon enough I realised I'm not using it to its full potential, nowhere near as much as I would like to.

While I was deliberating on ways to improve that, two external events happened, the pandemic and Brexit. The changes they brought along made an already challenging full-time vet job simply exhausting; a burn-out forced me to stop working altogether for a while.

They say one should never waste a good crisis. The involuntary time-out gave me room to think and come up with the idea of freelancing, which turned out to be the best way forward - working as a locum allows me to vary the time spent in practice and make room for other roles when and as needed. 

After Brexit changed the border crossing rules for live animals and animal products, the need for Official Veterinarians grew almost overnight. I was offered a contract to certify animal product exports, and this is how I entered a different professional environment. Signing health certificates for pets or animal products is very much like proofreading, it requires an obsessive attention to detail and a strict adherence to a rigid set of rules. Figuring out what exactly is this set of rules sometimes takes detective-like skills, so all-in-all it is an interesting activity. 

The repeated quarantines made telemedicine very popular, and I got another work offer, this time from a veterinary telemedicine provider, for online consulting. In remote consulting the value to the client is shifted from medication and procedures to advice, which is also provided in writing. Moreover, the information about the pet does not come from questioning the owner and examining the pet, but is entirely obtained from the owner. Offering a quality service in these circumstances takes a different, much more creative mindset. 

As any other digital business, veterinary telemedicine relies heavily on high-quality content, and this is where my medical and communicative skills found their best mixing point - in the creation of veterinary content. I started writing and editing articles and brochures aimed at pet owners, then teamed up with publishers producing pieces directed at other veterinary professionals. Next came reviewing research article drafts and academic degree theses which are great to do because I learn a lot through them.

Today, I continue to enjoy dealing with veterinary content in all its forms while working on a project of my own that I'm planning to launch in December 2024.