IVSA Journal - Summer 2020

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SUMMER 2020

ATTENDED ONLINE EVENTS General Assemblies of WVA, FVE, EVERI and WFPHA

By Elwin van Oldenborgh

Elwin at the 68th IVSA Symposium in Morocco

World Veterinary Association

www.worldvet.org

I attended the online General Assemblies of WVA, FVE, EVERI (our European Regional Representative Karoline attended these with me) and the WFPHA (together with our Committee Coordinator Emily). Since they were scaled down to the bare minimum because of time constraints and thus didn’t contain many topics that are very relevant for IVSA I’ll write a quick introduction of our partnership with these organisations, why it’s beneficial to IVSA to partner with these organisations and what opportunities they offer for you as IVSA members right now!

WVA or the World Veterinary Association, is the umbrella organization for all veterinarians in the world and can thus be seen as our counterpart for graduated veterinarians. They do a lot of work in the field of policies, veterinary standards and many other things! Our partnership with WVA specifically is that they consult us on topics that will affect the future veterinarians and we give them input on what students think about certain topics. We also partner with them in the WVA MSD scholarships and the WVA CEVA Animal Welfare Awards, for which you can find more information on our opportunities page.

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FVE or the Federation of Veterinarians in Europe is the umbrella organization for all veterinarians in Europe.

They, like WVA, do a lot of work on policy making and also work directly with the EU on topics that concern animals. They also write useful guidelines and you can find all of the information on their website. Just like with WVA we partner with them on topics that concern the future veterinarians, and they also have an internship spot available for one European student every year.

Federation of Veterinarians of Europe

EVERI is a section of FVE which is for veterinarians in education, research and industry, and since we have a lot to do with education IVSA is always invited to their general assembly as well. They used to have an EPT (extramural practical training) program in which they would sponsor students to attend sessions on things they might not learn in their normal curriculum (like bee medicine or policymaking for example). Right now the program is on hold due to a lack of financial funds, but they are looking for ways to get it active again as it's a really nice opportunity!

European Veterinarians in Education, Research and Industry

The WFPHA or the World Federation of Public Health Associations is an association we only recently joined but has a lot of potential for us! There are a lot of important organizations (like national public health agencies) that are also a part of the WFPHA so it can be a very valuable resource for contacts and knowledge on everything regarding public health. It was also interesting to see how such a large organization functions and can also have the same discussions about small things in bylaws that we can sometimes have. They also offer internships (unpaid), which can be found on the opportunities page as well!

World Federation of Public Health Associations

www.fve.org

www.fve.org/everi

www.wfpha.org

To check out scholarships, internships and other opportunities, go to www.ivsa.org/opportunities

and align strategies of our associations in

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WORLD HEALTH ASSEMBLY

By Anna Ciećkiewicz In May 2020 I was looking forward to representing IVSA during the 73rd World Health Assembly and IFMSA Pre-World Health Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland.

Unfortunately, the Global Pandemic disrupted everyone’s plans. However, even the lockdown cannot be an obstacle for motivated future healthcare professionals like us. We adapted and started intense preparations for the event that was to be held virtually.

The World Health Assembly (WHA) is a decision-making body of the World Health Organization where all the UN Member States, Non-State Actors including student organizations and other stakeholders meet to discuss key Global Health priorities. Due to the current epidemiological situation this year’s WHA took place online and was shortened to two days with the overarching topic of the discussion being

being the COVID-19 outbreak.

The IFMSA Virtual Pre-World Health Assembly Forum was an event organized by the International Federation of Medical Students’ Associations (IFMSA) in order to prepare youth health leaders to meaningfully participate in the 73rd WHA. IFMSA supporting the concept of multidisciplinary collaboration invited two IVSA members to attend the preparatory workshop and be part of the official delegation for the World Health Assembly.

This gave me and Simon Krückemeier from IVSA Germany a unique opportunity to represent veterinary students in this important meeting. The diverse group of participants from different countries, fields of studies and backgrounds allowed us to exchange points of view, look in a border perspective to many health-related issues

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order to have a bigger impact.

The Pre-WHA Forum started on the 14th of May 2020 and was planned for 3 days. However, seeing the motivation of delegates and increasing amount of ideas, the Organizing Committee decided to prolong it. Two additional days full of online sessions and activities were held after the WHA. Program of the preparatory workshop was centred around 3 key pillars: Global Health Education, Meaningful Youth Participation and Universal Health Coverage. Delegates could participate in interesting online educational panels as well as many practical capacity-building workshops on advocacy, policy making and external relations. Highlights of the academic program included an enlightening discussion about critical thinking and the importance of interdisciplinary approach to research by Dr Kabir Sheikh specialist in Health Policy and Systems. I learned a lot about the role of veterinarians in public health during the session with Maren Hopfe from the International Labour Organization (ILO) and an eye-opening panel with Dr Graham Lister showing the importance of youth involvement in the health governance and policy.

After three intensive days, we felt well prepared to not only observe but also be actively involved in the most important meeting in the Global Health world.

During the World Health Assembly, Member States delivered statements on the current epidemiological situation. The decision making was focused around the resolution outlining measures to be taken by countries to handle the global pandemic and its consequences. Important matters such as climate change, AMR, gender equity, and global access to health services

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and vaccines were discussed regarding the COVID-19 outbreak. Is was very inspiring to see the involvement of all student participants in the “Global Health Football” as this is how we called our live commentary on the delegations’ chat during the event. IFMSA provided us with an amazing opportunity to exchange our thoughts and points of view throughout the entire WHA. Rich in new experiences and insights from the WHA, during the last 2 days of the Pre-WHA Forum delegates participated in the Global Health Hackathon. It was an activity encouraging us to think outside of the box in order to come up with a solution to tackle one of the recent health-related challenges.

Divided into 8 Advocacy Hackathon Groups under the mentorship of IFMSA Liaison Officers we were asked to develop a strategy for youth to be meaningfully involved in remote global health events.

My team and I focused our advocacy efforts on the Antimicrobial Resistance

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Article and pictures provided by Anna Ciećkiewicz

while Simon decided to join the group tackling the problem related to WHO Governance. All the teams presented final pitches on the last day of the event. Jury chose a winner based on 4 criteria: Solution, Innovation, Possibility of Implementation and Presentation. However, the most precious prize was the valuable input of invited professionals and the fruitful discussions within our interdisciplinary, multicultural teams.

Attending this event even while staying at home was truly a lifechanging experience. The best proof of my words was one of my favourite IFMSA side-event tilted “Youth Forum and Careers in Global Health” where panellists talked about the ups and downs of early-career professionals. It was very motivating to meet all the speakers many of them being last year's youth delegates to the PreWHA and 72nd WHA exactly like us now.

I am very grateful to IFMSA for including us in their delegation. It allowed us to learn more about the work of global organizations like WHO, meet current and future global health leaders and participate in many debates on the key health-related matters which was an eye-opening experience.

For more information on the World Health Assembly: bit.ly/73WHA2020

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STANDI NG COMMI TTEEON ANI MALW ELFARE Wi l dWe l f ar eArc l e

As s es s i ngWel f ar ei nZoosandAquar i ums ByGeor gi naGr oves , Ex ec u veDi r ec t orofWi l dWel f a r e “ T oas s e s sanani mal ’ swe l f ar e , wewantt ok nowwhat as pe c t soft hee nv i r onme ntc oul di mpac thowt hatani mal i s f e e l i ng .

Di ffe r e nts pe c i e sandi ndi v i dual swi l l r e s pondand r e ac tdi ffe r e nt l yt oane nv i r onme nt , s oi t ’ si mpor t antt ohav e at hor oug hunde r s t andi ngoft hats pe c i e snat ur al bi ol og yand be hav i our . ” Howc a nwea s s es st hewel f a r eofa ni ma l si nz oosa nd a qua r i ums ?As s es s i ngba s edonl yont hehea l t ha s pec t does n' tt el l ushowt hea ni ma l i sf eel i ng.

Weneedt o a s s es st hea ffec ves t a t eofa na ni ma l t oeva l ua t ehow s uc c es s f ul t heeffor t st oma i nt a i ngooda ni ma l wel f a r e.

T o t hor oughl yunder s t a ndt hemea s ur ementofa ni ma l wel f a r eunder t a k enbyt heWi l dWel f a r et ea m, hea dover t oourbl og!

Enc our agi ngChangesf r om Wi t hi ni nVi et nam Sar ahBl ake, Pr oj ec t sa ndDevel opmentMa na gerf or Wi l dWel f a r e, wentt oVi et na m ba c ki n2017.

Shewa son apr oj ec tt oi mpr ovet hel i vesoft hea ni ma l si none pa rc ul a rz oo.

Shes a wal otofs t er eot ypi c a l beha vi our s , s uc ha sunna t ur a l l evel sofpa c i ng, bei ngs hownbyt he a ni ma l s , whi c hwa sa ni ndi c a onoft hei rf r us t r a on. “ Theani mal smi g htunde r g of e e l i ng soff r us t r a onbe c aus e t he yhadane ne r g ye x pe ndi t ur ede fic i ts oIne e de dt ofig ur e outway sofpr ov i di ngt hos eoppor t unie swi t houtbe i ngabl e t og i v et he mmor es pac e .

Enr i c hme ntwasus ual l yt he ans we r . ”

Ti g e rpl ay ss andc as t l e&s unbe arl i c k san i c ebl oc k

Oneofhergoa l swa st ogett hek eeper si nves t edt ous e enr i c hmentwi t hi nt ha tz oo.

Beyondt ha t , s hea l s ot r a i ned t hek eeper st ot r a i nt hei ra ni ma l s , hel dawor ks hopwi t h t hek eeper st ot hi nkt hor oughl ya bouta ni ma l wel f a r e i s s ues , des i gna ndbui l ds t r uc t ur esf ort hea ni ma l s , a nd pl ent yofot hera wes omet hi ngs !Rea dhera ma z i ng j our neyi nVi et na m hel pi ngt hek eeper st opr omot ea gooda ni ma l wel f a r ei nt hez ooonourbl og! h ps : / / i v s aani mal we l f ar e c ommie e . wor dpr e s s . c om/

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Partnerships As One Health is what this standing committee is all about, we are incredibly proud to share our blossoming partnerships with: OIE - World Organisation for Animal Health ISOHA - International Student One Health Alliance IFMSA - International Federation of Medical Students’ Association IAAS - International Association of Students in Agricultural and Related Sciences WHSA - World Health Students’ Association IPSF - International Pharmaceutical Students’ Federation IADS - International Association of Dentistry Students This is all in the spirit of developing our sense of One Health and how we can apply this concept practically in reality. We love our “extended family members” and hope that the work we are doing now will continue far into IVSA’s future!

Working with WHSA, a competition was held during Antimicrobial Awareness Week.

IFMSA, our human medicine counterparts have created a very informative Google drive folder with some fantastic COVID-19 educational resources, which are available to everyone!

You can find all their resources here: bit.ly/IFMSAresourcesCovid19

In conjunction with IPSF, we hosted a webinar on how veterinary science could assist with mitigating the COVID-19 global disaster. This was well-received! It encouraged more proactive thinking from the students and the future of our profession, to really take part in any global issue where the One Health concept may be applied.

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We came together with WHSA, IFMSA, IPSF, to make a video about how young healthcare professionals are dealing with the COVID-19 Pandemic.

IADS, IFMSA and IPSF teamed up with us to start a “Thank Your Healthcare Professional” social media campaign.

Find the video here: bit.ly/WHSAvideo The OIE held a presentation on the 9th of June about OIE International Standards.

We were really happy to hear from quite a number of students who could not make it, asking for the recording of the presentation. It is great to know that there are many students out there who are proactively keeping themselves informed and up to date!

You can find the presentation under: bit.ly/OIEinternationalstandards

Stay in touch!

For any information regarding what we have done so far, or what we’re still getting up to, please do feel free to contact us! We want to hear more from YOU! You can have a look at all of the above mentioned projects and always feel more than free to message us if you have any questions or would just like to get more information on anything One Health!

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Kindly, Your IVSA SCOH family

@thescoh @ivsa.scoh @IvsaScoh The SCOH of IVSA

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SUMMER 2020

Having our regular projects under control, it was now time to face the first real challenge; Wellness Week in April.

For the people unfamiliar with the project, Wellness Week is one of SCOW's annual events where each MO gets to participate by organizing their own wellnessoriented events. These events usually take place either in the university campus or at some place where the members of the MOs can gather together. So, you see how this year, Wellness Week was... “special”.

Unfortunately, and due to the social distancing that was performed in many of our MOs’ countries we too had to compromise. Beside the fact that gatherings were not safe, campuses were on lockdown, we couldn’t just barge in and do yoga!

So, the Committee had to adapt, by making Wellness Week online, but we took it to our advantage! And the response we got was breathtaking. So many of our MOs jumped in on the chance to organise so many original and diverse events that even we didn’t believe it. People were more than thrilled to join in on their MOs online activities and the participation rates were higher than almost any other year! Some of the activities worth mentioning were online yoga sessions, cooking challenges, movie marathons, art and music submissions and even some lovely pictures of members paying full attention to their pets.

Twelve of our MOs participated in this year’s Wellness Week and we felt that we should honor each and every one of them sharing the highlights of their Wellness weeks, starting with our Winner IVSA South Africa, who among other challenges, like a music and cooking challenge, did a yoga and meditation challenge!

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IVSA South Africa doing a Yoga and Meditation session

Second place was secured by IVSA Naples! Naples did a series of events starting with an Anti-Discrimination lecture with the title “Discrimination of Sex and Gender”, an online music session, an online hometraining session and a pubquiz!

IVSA Naples playing music together online

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IVSA Morocco got third place coming strong with a cooking challenge, game marathons by challenging your best friends, taking breathtaking pictures at home and working out.

IVSA Morocco's cooking challenge

Some honorary mentions go to IVSA Estonia, IVSA Ghent and IVSA Slovakia. Also, a big thank you is in order for IVSA Egypt, IVSA Milan, IVSA Poznan, IVSA Kelantan, IVSA Selangor and IVSA Zurich for their respective participations in our Wellness Week celebrations! And also thank you to each and every member who has put an effort into making this year’s Wellness Week an unforgettable event! We hope that next year’s Wellness Week will be anticipated with as much enthusiasm or even more!

Last but not least, Wellness deemed it impossible to not respond to the Corona outbreak with some support to its members.

And here comes step three.

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Even in the midst of isolation and social distancing and by following our beautiful MOs’ examples we did some lovely Movie Marathons, and some Daily Study Sessions where one could really see the love and support that characterizes the community IVSA is striving for.

And thus, with a heavy heart we prepare to hand over our positions to the next generation of wellness, while reflecting back to this year; a year full of fun times and adventure. Were we enough? Did we accomplish the reason for which we were chosen to represent student wellness? Did we leave the IVSA community a better place than when we found it?

One thing is sure. That this was one of the most unique experiences of our lives.

Sincerely, The Wellness Team of 2019-2020

Stay in touch! @ivsawellness @ivsa_wellness 31

STANDING COMMITTEE ON CAREER ATTRIBUTES Meet the committee members!

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VERBAL COMMUNICATION Communication is an important part of anyone’s life. Especially for veterinary professionals communication skills are key as we work together with other people on a daily basis. In this article we will give you a short introduction to verbal communication, with some tips you can use every day to ensure you’ll be the best communicator you can be!

Sending information Be concise

Be clear

Try to plan ahead with what you’re trying to say, and to arrive at an understandable conclusion.

Listeners are more likely to not follow you and wander off if the journey you are taking them on is hard to follow.

By not wrapping the thing you are trying to communicate you save the listener energy, for which they will be grateful.

Be confident Being confident does not mean dominating the conversation.

You want to make sure not to talk too much, however when you speak make sure to come across confidently, and definitely don’t try to undercut your own point after you say it (you would be surprised to see how many people do this).

While using these techniques it’s also very important to keep in mind to be respectful to the other person. Don’t be overpowering and don’t try to impose your point on the other person.

Using all of these points you should be able to get your point across easier and without any frustration, so try it out!

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Receiving information and listening With listening and receiving information instead of arriving at your own point you’re trying to arrive at the other person’s to understand them and get the information you need. This might be even more important than speaking in communicating with others. Listening is also the type of communication that humans use most in our lives, so this again underlines the importance of it! This is also the type of communication that is basically always happening between a veterinarian and a client in a consultation, so being skilled at this can be very helpful in your whole career! Here are some tips you can use in your daily live to make you a better and more active listener!

Ask open-ended questions By not giving the other person the option to choose between two answers you are sure to get more and more accurate information. Make sure your questions are also not too leading, as the other person can easily follow this lead when they might have said something else with a neutral question.

Empathize

By acknowledging the other’s feelings they will feel more comfortable in the conversation. They are also more likely to listen to you as respect goes both ways.

Ask for clarification By asking for clarification if you’re not clear on something you will improve mutual understanding and also ensure the other person knows you’re listening to them.

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Summarize Reflecting on what the other person says is both helpful for yourself to help memorize important points, but also ensures that there will be no misunderstandings.

Be present

Make eye contact and be sure that the other person knows they have your full attention, this way they will feel comfortable and will keep talking with you.

Be patient Don’t try and intercut the other person with signs that you want to respond, instead wait for them to finish talking, wait 1-2 seconds to see if they really finished which also conveys you’re really paying attention to what the other person is saying.

Try to combine both types of verbal communication in a conversation and see if it helps you communicate more clearly!

Learn more about soft skills by following us on social media!

@SCoCA 36

@ivsa_scoca

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SUMMER 2020

Evaluation of the "Equine Upper Respiratory Tract Guide" App The ''Equine Upper Respiratory Tract Guide'' is an inclusive guide of the equine upper respiratory tract.

This guide is designated for veterinarians and veterinary students, for whom it provides a fully comprehensive tool of understanding the upper respiratory tract, help them establish accurate diagnosis in a timely manner for the patient's well-being and client satisfaction and guide them in the choice and application of therapy.

In order to be able to proceed to the next phase of developing this application, veterinary students and veterinarians will have to use this app and provide feedback.

This study is currently being undertaken at Institute Hassan II in collaboration with IVSA Morocco. We are counting on you to help build this amazing learning tool.

Download the app here: bit.ly/EURTapp Fill in the feedback survey here: bit.ly/FeedbackEURTApp

World Veterinary Day 2020 IVSA SCoVE celebrates veterinarians worldwide for their contributions to the preservation of the health of mother Earth through extensive delivery of veterinary services. Humans and animals co-exist in one diverse environment and it is becoming clearer by the day that the human-animal-environment bond is not only unbreakable but an upset in the established balance will have consequences on the entire (eco)system and it's individual components.

From wildlife to food animals, vets are playing their part in maintaining the balance!

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SCoVE Survey SCoVE is currently conducting a survey on risks of exposure of veterinary students to infectious diseases. In order to obtain a statistically significant result, we need as many veterinary students as possible participating in this survey. It takes only a couple of minutes to fill in the survey form.

bit.ly/VetStudentsHealthRiskSurvey

SCoVE Quiz #2 Winner It was another interesting episode of the SCoVE Quiz on an automated quiz platform ClassMarker. The quiz was on clinical cases shared by Clinician's Brief in March and history of Veterinary Medicine, there were also few questions about SCoVE itself.

Congratulations to Miranda Thomas from IVSA SAVMA. We hope you will enjoy your subscription on the Plumb's Veterinary Drugs app.

Stay tuned for the next contest from SCoVE!

SCoVE Diagnostic Challenge Winner It was a tough one but here is the winner (she scored the highest points). We will be sending the correct diagnosis, diagnostic tests as well as the treatment and control to all participants in the next few days.

We deeply appreciate everyone who participated, it was exciting to realize we have fantastic clinicians (or clinician-to-be’s) all over in IVSA! Watch out for the next SCoVE Diagnostic Challenge!

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New Features on EDU+ Vet-Anatomy Vet-Anatomy is an interactive atlas of veterinary anatomy based on medical imaging. VetAnatomy has been created on the same framework as the popular award-winning e-Anatomy, but dedicated to animals, under the direction of Dr. Susanne AEB Boroffka, dipl. ECVDI, PhD and Dr. Antoine Micheau, MD.

Dr. Banga's Websites With cases to solve (NAVLE standard), free veterinary e-books, procedural videos and more online veterinary resources, our new inclusion on EDU+ is a grand resource base for veterinary students regardless of your level of study or region of study! The site was created and is maintained by Dr. Banga.

Dr. Banga has worked as Assistant Professor and Assistant Dean of Students at School of Veterinary Medicine, St. George's University, Grenada. He has more than 10 years of Teaching and Research Experience at academic institutes of different countries. He received several awards for Teaching and Research including the Carl Norden-Pfizer Distinguished Teaching Award and the Banfield Golden Apple Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Check out the new features under: ivsascove.wixsite.com/eduplatform

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VET Talks: First Priorities in Coughing Dogs In this amazing round of VET Talks, Dr. Luca Ferasin explained in details, the mechanism of coughing, the actual parameters to prioritize in coughing dogs and the best line of treatment to be considered with peculiarities as the cases may be presented. He also discussed how to differentiate a true cough from similar occurrences and intrinsic factors affecting cough reflex.

We find this episode of VET Talks very educative and we believe you will inevitably learn a lot from it. There were animations and short videos to aid the explanations and this is an excellent video in all. Kudos to our Ambassador in Bucharest, Maria Mihaela Ifrose for referring Dr Luca Ferasin.

Watch this, and many other VET Talks under: bit.ly/scovevettalks

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Chang Chun (nicknamed Annie) is a Project Manager of the IVSA Equine Community. Annie is a member of IVSA Taiwan and is currently in her third year of veterinary medicine at the National Taiwan University. She aspires to raise public awareness about equids and create a better environment for animals.

Catherine Ross is an Event Manager of the IVSA Equine Community. She is a member of IVSA Glasgow and a 4th year student at the University of Glasgow.

Catherine believes that collaborative learning is key as we all have so much to give and learn from each other. She is looking forward to helping broaden Equine knowledge outside of the university syllabus.

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Aleksandra Samsel is an Event Manager of the IVSA Equine Community.

She is a member of IVSA Warsaw. She is currently in her fifth year at Warsaw University of Life Sciences. Some of you may know her as the OC for EDinVE Conference.

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Anastasia Rapti is the Resource Manager of the IVSA Equine Community.

She is a member of IVSA Thessaly (Greece) and 4th year student at the University of Thessaly. Anastasia's goal is to help those who believe that equine medicine is hard to reach and increase their confidence.

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Petra Ribarić is the Database Manager of the IVSA Equine Community.

Petra is a 5th year (out of 6) veterinary student at the Veterinary faculty, University of Zagreb, Croatia and a member of IVSA Croatia. Her goal in this team is to connect internationally so we can make education in equine medicine more accessible to interested students and form life-long friendships in the process.

Karim Sayed is the Graphics Manager of the IVSA Equine Community. He is a veterinary medical student in Assiut University, Egypt. He is part of Class of 2023 and a member of IVSA Egypt. He joined the IVSA Equine Community in order to learn more and do his best to make the Equine community greater.

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Vet school: what's your best memory and your hardest time? (if you have any) My best and worst memories in vet school were actually related to IVSA as well. My best memories, by far, were meeting new friends from vet schools all over the world, and learning about why they are striving to become vets, and what led them to where they were.

Learning about the passion of the craziest students in the world truly inspired me to want to be the best I could be.

At the same time, being heavily involved in IVSA while doing school full time meant that I missed out on a lot of classes, and on a lot of bonding moments with my classmates. I felt terrible whenever there was a group project, and often felt left out and alone, facing some of the toughest years in vet school while dealing with problems within IVSA. But many people helped me through it, and those days left an impact on my life which helped me cope with difficult situations, and to appreciate the true friends I have, wherever they may be in the world.

Vet life Now you're a Vet! In which branch of Veterinary Medicine you work? Tell us about your job and daily routine.

I'm (mostly) a small animal practitioner, in what is really a mixed practice (I get to see lots of exotic animals as well). The idea is that if anyone can bring the animal to the clinic, I'll treat it.

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My boss happens to be one of the best surgeons in the country, and we get a lot of referral cases especially with regards to surgery. I get to work bright and early, check up on the hospitalized cases, see anywhere between 15 to maybe 40 cases a day, get a 5 minute lunch break in between (I actually get 1 hour, but I gobble food down quick), and usually am finished work by about night time. I get home, take a shower, eat some dinner, and rest to prepare for my next day. I love my job.

What tips would you give to people wishing to get into your area of Veterinary Medicine, either new graduates or those just looking for a career change?

Make sure you get a boss and/or team that is supportive and helpful. So many friends of mine get so fed up with the entire business because they don't know what to do, and they lack good instruction when they enter the field. And always always always make time to rest and relax. There will be good days and bad days - learn to enjoy the good days, and learn to accept the bad days, while looking forward to better ones.

"IVSA helped me empathize with my clients and helped me communicate in a way to help them make informed decisions"

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What was the biggest struggle as a Vet? (finding a job, moving to other countries...)

Figuring out how things work, what in the world I was doing there (and whether or not I deserved to be there) and trying to make sure I don't sully the clinic's reputation. Basically I needed to relearn everything, and to gain lots more confidence to be a decent vet.

In your opinion, how did being a member of IVSA contribute to your future career as a veterinarian?

I learned so much from IVSA in terms of dealing with people, and how to understand where people came from.

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It truly helped me empathize with my clients, and helped me to communicate in a way that helped them make informed decisions. It's probably one of the greatest gifts that has helped me in my quest to be a great vet.

Last but most important, what's the best thing about being a vet?

Seeing a patient get better because of actions you took to treat your patient.

And seeing the clients, in turn, be joyful and thankful in successful cases. It truly makes everything worth it. With that being said, cute puppies and "thank you" gifts are pretty amazing too!

Nina Schmidt Life during IVSA and Vet School Tell us about your experience in IVSA Secretary, IVSA Denmark President, IVSA Denmark Member of Secretariat, IVSA Global (MOD Secretary) Member Organization Director, IVSA Global Chair of Working Group on Alumni, IVSA Global Trustee, IVSA Global Delegate of the Congress in Romania, Congress in Austria, Special GA in North Carolina, Congress in Malaysia, Symposium in South Africa, Congress in Poland, Congress in Croatia, Symposium in Morocco IVSA Volunteer Coordinator of the WSAVA Congress in Copenhagen 50

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Vet school: what's your best memory and your hardest time? (if you have any) My best memories are tied to all of the amazing people I've met during my time in vet school. I've made a lot of friends for life from all over the world, and this wouldn't have been possible without IVSA. Experiencing what life as vet students in other parts of the word is like, has really broadened my horizons.

The hardest times during vet school have been certain exam periods and time management.

Vet life Now you're a Vet! In which branch of Veterinary Medicine you work? Tell us about your job and daily routine.

I work as an equine veterinarian in a mixed large animal practice in Denmark. I do mostly ambulatory work, but we also have a small clinic where I perfom endoscopies and gastroscopies. I see a lot of different horses, ranging from small miniature ponies to professional sport horses, and I meet a lot of different types of horse owners. I do a lot of routine stuff like vaccinations and dental work, but I also do a lot of reproductive work (scanning, AI etc), some lameness work-up and a lot of endo- and gastroscopies. As we all know, horses are very sensitive animals that are prone to get into all sorts of stupid things, so I also see a lot of wounds and colics. I work out of hours (on call) as well, so I never know what I might be called out to, which, in the beginning, I found absolutely terrifying, but now I actually really enjoy it.

Stay in touch!

What tips would you give to people wishing to get into your area of Veterinary Medicine, either new graduates or those just looking for a career change?

Just go for it!

What was the biggest struggle as a Vet? (finding a job, moving to other countries...)

It can be very difficult to find a job as an equine veterinarian in Denmark, but I got lucky and found a job right after graduation. Fresh out of vet school, there's so much you need to learn and everything is super scary, so it's really important that you have some good colleagues that you can ask questions and get help from.

In your opinion, how did being a member of IVSA contribute to your future career as a veterinarian?

I know that all of my experiences as an IVSA Official has made my CV stand out from others, and I feel that I've gained a lot of soft skills, for example improving my communication skills and understanding of different people and cultures, by being an active member of IVSA. Last but most important, what's the best thing about being a vet?

Helping a lot of horses and making their owners happy and satisfied everyday is awesome! Plus what is better than getting lots of kisses from a soft, warm horsie muzzle :-)

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