Astrid Bjørn Lund

Clinic: Egtved Dyrlægerne, Egtved

Practice clinic: Royal Veterinary College, Queen Mother Hospital

Clinical rotation: Soft Tissue Surgery

Astrid received help from a lecturer at the CACS programme to plan her international stay

I got in contact with the university through Gert ter Haar, who taught at the surgery module and he recommended the Royal Veterinary College, Queen Mother Hospital to me.

The hospital is used to having students, so they e-mailed me all the information I needed, e.g. where to stay and even how to get to the campus from the different airports in London.

During her stay Astrid had a close relation with the staff at the hospital, and she followed their work closely in treatment of patients:

I saw a lot of different patients and treatments. It is a referral hospital, so there was a lot of variety in the cases. I saw wound management and reconstructions using vacuum therapy (V.A.C.), Portosystemic shunt surgery, various tumor operations, including insulinoma, thyroidal carcinoma, auricular chemodectoma, placement of permanent thoracic tubes and larynx paralysis. Soft tissue surgery had approximately 6 surgical procedures daily plus a number of post-operative check-ups including check-ups after subcutaneous ureter bypass on cats.

A typical day at the university started at eight o’clock where we went for rounds. At rounds we were doing check-ups, treatment and treatment planning till around 10-11 o’clock. After this there were surgeries, both minor and major. The closing rounds were about 16-18 o’clock. Some days exciting surgeries were about to start at that time, so you had the time to observe a little bit more.  

The distribution between staff and students was great. I was connected to the specialists but was encouraged to go wherever something exciting took place. Every veterinarian had about 3 or 4 students with them on their rounds, which made it possible for them to teach the students and answer questions between treatments.  This made the educational level very high.

With different cultures come different treatment methods and Astrid observed a lot of new diagnostic and therapeutic procedures.

“The commitment and the well-developed diagnostic and therapeutic tools they have make them capable of treating conditions in an ethical way, contrary to Denmark, where we cannot treat the same diseases yet. These methods will be available in Denmark in a matter of time. Overall I saw a lot of things where I learned something but it is not only the stay that has helped me and my clinic. The Master of Companion Animal Clinical Science has changed a lot of routines in Egtved.

I believe everybody should have a stay like this. I got a great experience in London that shifted my mindset which I think is very healthy. I also had a weekend off where I could see London, which only was a bonus for my stay.