8 Jul 2021
The Virtual Veterinary Internship has been launched by the US-based Veterinary Information Network to help guide new graduates or vets returning to the profession.
Joshua Silverwood
Job Title
Course co-founders Stijn Niessen and Yaiza Forcada.
A virtual internship aimed at helping vet graduates find a smoother landing into the profession is pushing ahead with its first class of 90 on Monday (12 July).
The Virtual Veterinary Internship, launched by the US-based Veterinary Information Network, is an international and online course designed to help guide new graduates or vets returning to the profession.
The course is being launched in response to a growing sense of job dissatisfaction and poor welfare among young vets in practice, with aims of keeping them in the profession.
Co-founder of the course Stijn Niessen said: “We have seen all sorts of problems in terms of job satisfaction, well-being issues, high staff turnover rates or even people leaving the industry altogether.
“This can be a fantastic profession, but there is something going wrong with so many of our colleagues where they don’t find their professional happy spot.”
Dr Niessen added: “This isn’t going to be the end-all be-all. We just want to figure out a system by which people can get more of a structured professional start for their career, or when they re-enter into their career.
“They will have something available to them that they can access that will be added to their physical job to get a more optimised start in the profession.”
Dr Niessen, alongside his co-founder Yaiza Forcada, have ensured that the course runs in conjunction with the RCVS’ teaching aims, and will also be compliant with American and European veterinary regulators.
Applicants will join a class of 10 colleagues through a year of teaching, which will rotate through the main topics of small animal veterinary studies, from cardiology to dermatology.
Virtual interns will also find themselves allocated a mentor – an experienced working professional – who will help to guide applicants through the early stages of their career.
They will also have access to an array of area specialists, as well as a backup mental health team who can be called on at any time for counselling.
The group will run seminars aimed at covering subjects that are not usually covered in a typical internship, subjects such as communication with clients, workplace conflicts and how to deal with stress.
Dr Niessen said: “Some of this stuff is incredibly important when starting out. Much of it is important even if you are not starting out.
“This is our little project to give back to the profession by giving them a tool that they can access anywhere at any time.
“We want every practice to have a structure in place in which they can safely and comfortably support their new graduates, but also all the graduates in their practice.”
