Hello everyone, for my blog today I will be discussing my EMS experience and thinking about what I would tell my first-year self before she checked the EMS database for the first time. My friends have also shared thoughts from their perspectives which I will share too.
My first piece of advice is about selecting which species you arrange for your Christmas EMS, in my opinion cat, dog, chicken and pigs are the species you should aim for. This is because one of the School requirements is to pass an animal practical on a particular species before you are allowed to work with that species on EMS. The resits for cow, horse and sheep are scheduled after the Christmas break, so that puts pressure on you to pass the practical on your first attempt if you’ve got EMS booked. A couple of my friends had to rearrange placements as they didn’t pass the first time and those who did had a stressful week waiting for the result – vet school is already stressful enough, there is no point giving yourself added EMS stress!
My second piece of advice is to arrange your EMS so that you are going with a friend or going to a placement that you know accepts multiple vet students at the same time. Some EMS placements are very busy and having someone who is learning beside you can help you feel less stressed. On placements that have quiet hours where there is no work to do, having other vet students to talk to definitely makes the time pass by quicker too. Also, there are times when upsetting matters can occur so having someone in the same position as you to support can really help. For example, I had a difficult lambing experience and if I was alone, I would have been beyond stressed however luckily, I wasn’t and had people to help me through that placement.
My third piece of advice is to not do too many back-to-back EMS placements. Holidays are meant to be enjoyed not to cram in as many EMS weeks as humanly possible. I know people who did 6 weeks back-to-back or 3 weeks straight before starting second year, in both cases these people had regrets. EMS can be fun learning about how to handle lots of different species but it is also very tiring. Even if you have weekends, it will take a lot of your energy so space it out accordingly.
My last piece of advice is to make the most of EMS, I have had some great placements which I plan on returning to again outside of the EMS requirement. It’s very easy to stick to the placements that you have been to before vet school however to make connections and expand your knowledge it’s best to reach out and try new placements. For my pig EMS I did just that and ended up making a connection with a highland wildlife park and feeding a polar bear!
With EMS it’s hard to predict what will happen but expanding your connections and knowledge is always worth it.
