Amelia Rashid’s veterinary career began with a solid foundation in mixed practice in Newcastle, fresh off her graduation from Liverpool in 2020. Her path took an adventurous turn towards locum work to fuel her travel passions, leading her unexpectedly into the fast-paced world of Emergency and Critical Care (ECC) with Vets Now.
We caught up with Amelia to understand her ECC career development through our AdvantEdge program.
Tell us a little about your career so far.
I graduated from Liverpool in 2020, and then my first job was in a busy mixed practice in Newcastle. I did small animals and equine. Just over two years in, I decided to go travelling and started locum work to facilitate this. I did that for about a year, and then started the job at Vets Now Middlesborough.
What led you to become a vet?
Sadly, I was one of those cliché people who always wanted to be a vet! Fortunately, science was what I was best at, so it made sense to go down that route.
When did you develop an interest in emergency and critical care?
I first became interested in ECC at uni. In my third, fourth and fifth year I had a part-time job working at two practices nearby. I would be there overnight to help with triaging and inpatient care. This combined with busy out-of-hours at my first job was where my interest in ECC began.
Amelia RashidAdvantEdge was a confidence builder knowing I was getting training with the most up-to-date information, and I appreciated how they provided us with lots of papers and evidence for everything they were teaching
What brought you to Vets Now?
When I was locuming, I did both first opinion as well as Vets Now, and I found I really enjoyed Vets Now!
When did you do AdvantEdge?
I’d been aware of AdvantEdge – and Cutting Edge – for ages. And then when I ended up joining Vets Now after gaining a bit more experience, it turned out the next AdvantEdge intake was about a week later, so the timing ended up working out.
The AdvantEdge programme is a mixture of in-person and online learning. What sessions did you find most useful?
Both the in-person and online sessions were really useful, and all the speakers were amazing, but I probably did prefer in- person. Everyone was very friendly and approachable, so I felt comfortable answering and taking part in sessions, and really enjoyed the practical days as well. AdvantEdge was a confidence builder knowing I was getting training with the most up-to-date information, and I appreciated how they provided us with lots of papers and evidence for everything they were teaching.
Peer support is an important part of the programme. Do you keep in touch with your AdvantEdge cohort?
Yes, definitely – you speak to some people more than others, but we do all keep in touch.
What do you enjoy most about emergency practice?
I like how immediately you can make a difference to a case. And you can do everything straight away – you need bloods or imaging, you can do them right then. It’s more exciting compared to day practice which I find a bit mundane.
Amelia RashidI’d say I use something I learnt at AdvantEdge during almost every single shift I’ve worked. There was so much good information
And how are you finding adjusting to night work and work-life balance?
It’s not been too bad. I did a lot of research into shift working before I started, getting clued up on circadian rhythms and things, and I’m a big planner. So, I plan my exercise days and my meals all the week before, which I think really helps as it can be easy to feel too tired to bother when you’re working nights. But if you’ve already got it all figured out ahead of time and written down, it’s harder to make excuses.
Would you recommend AdvantEdge to other vets interested in emergency practice?
Absolutely. I’d say I use something I learnt at AdvantEdge during almost every single shift I’ve worked. There was so much good information – I knew it would be useful, but it’s been even more valuable than I expected. I still take my notes from AdvantEdge to clinic with me, as there have been a lot of things been worth referring to.
Have you had any interesting cases recently?
Actually, here’s one where I really benefitted from AdvantEdge. Over Christmas, we had a one-year-old Airedale Terrier presenting with a four-day history of vomiting. I did abdominal imaging and suspected a foreign body, so went into surgery. And then almost immediately, the patient went into cardiac arrest and we had to perform CPR.
It took about four minutes to get him back, but we managed it. And then when we could properly look into the abdomen, it did require an end-to-end anastomosis, which I did not have a lot of experience with. I managed to resect about 10 centimetres of small intestine. The animal ended up doing really well, going home within 48 hours and is fine now. I don’t think I would have managed that case as well without AdvantEdge.
We had practical sessions addressing both anastomosis and CPR. I think you can know how to do them on paper, but in practice, needing to do it successfully, it feels very different.