Wednesday 20th October was a pioneering day for Nottingham Vet School and for the Association of Veterinary Students (AVS). It saw the launch of our first “Welfare Day,” an exciting event which aimed to showcase the support and welfare services available to veterinary students at Nottingham. The idea was to use a different method of communication to ensure vet students gain a better insight into the support available to them at Nottingham.
The day was initiated and run by the Nottingham Welfare Committee which was set up by students and supported by the Association of Veterinary Students (AVS) and Nottingham School of Veterinary Medicine and Science. The head of the committee is Year 3 student Chris Ogden (AVS Welfare representative) and the committee involves a group of students and staff from the vet school who are involved and interested in student welfare at Nottingham. As a group, they felt that it was important to facilitate student input and raise awareness of the support available to them, allowing a continual review of the welfare systems in place.
All students were invited to attend the day, which began at 11am with an exhibition of many welfare organisations including University of Nottingham Student Support Services (mental health support worker, sexual advice, chaplaincy, finance centre, nightline and the student’s union), the Nottingham Vet School welfare and tutor team, BVA, the Young Vet Network, Vet helpline, the Veterinary Defence Society, the Veterinary Surgeons Health Support Programme, the community drug and alcohol service and the AVS. Also invited to attend were staff from other vet schools, who browsed the exhibition and met with the Nottingham Welfare Committee to discuss and compare welfare strategies in each vet school and the potential of peer support systems.
Robin Dollery (Head of Student Services at the University of Nottingham) and Rosie Allister (Chair of Vethelpline) gave talks on mental health and welfare of veterinary students. These talks offered a shocking but important message about the statistics of mental health and welfare problems in the veterinary profession. The talks mainly focussed on good welfare, emphasising that it is acceptable to feel stressed and to seek someone to talk about it with. It encouraged the students to recognise signs of their own stress and how to deal with this. The talk was well attended and seemed to hit home to many; as one student said “made me realise how vulnerable we are.” The day also saw the launch of a student survey on the welfare systems in place at Nottingham, which will provide excellent feedback on the issues Nottingham students feel are important to them and the kind of welfare support they would reach for when needed.
Chris Ogden, Year 3 student and AVS Welfare rep said “The day was a fantastic success. The atrium buzzed for most of the morning with students meeting many of the support organisations. The hope is that by raising awareness of these welfare issues earlier on in a veterinary student’s careers path, they may learn that seeking help for problems is acceptable and helpful in preventing major problems arising later on in life. “
AVS President and Nottingham Year 5 student, Jen Hall said “We hope that other representatives from AVS and from veterinary societies will follow on from Nottingham’s initiative and organise similar days in their vet schools”.
Prof. Gary England. Dean of School said “We are tremendously encouraged at how the Nottingham student body is proactive in addressing welfare and support issues that may affect them both as students and on qualification as veterinary professionals. The School and University have committed dedicated resources to extensively supporting our students and this was recognised in the results of the last AVS/BVA survey with Nottingham students reporting a low incidence of stress and anxiety".
Posted on Friday 3rd December 2010