About me

Healthy Information  

Professional Veterinary Services

BECOMING a VET

WORKING in PRACTICE

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's degree required a broad specialisation and I chose Research & Industry because its curriculum included subjects like veterinary research methodology, veterinary medicine development, public health,  which provided a wider and more thorough 'big picture' of the entire veterinary industry.

In May 2017 I became a Member of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, after which I moved to Scotland where, 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.  

    DIVERSIFYING my WORK

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


    This communication-oriented skillset turned useful in my vet work, 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 considering how to change that, the COVID-19 pandemic happened. Working under quarantine conditions made an already challenging full-time vet job simply exhausting, I got a burn-out and had to stop working altogether for a while.

    One should never waste a good crisis. This involuntary time-out gave me space to come up with the idea of freelancing, which turned out to be the best way forward. Working as a locum veterinary surgeon allows me to vary the time spent in practice to make room for other stuff.

    The repeated lockdowns also made telemedicine very popular and I got a work offer to do online consulting via a veterinary telemedicine provider.


    As many other 100% digital businesses, veterinary telemedicine relies heavily on high-quality content, and this is where my veterinary knowledge and writing skills found their best mixing point, in the creation of veterinary content.


    I started off by writing and editing website articles, then was asked to produce journal articles and various brochures aimed at pet owners, then teamed up with publishers creating articles directed at other veterinary professionals.


    My current schedule is a mix of in-practice locum work, veterinary content jobs, plus working on a creative project of my own that is set to be launched begin December 2024.

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