Dr Liesel van der Merwe is a small animal medicine specialist. Send her your questions: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Dr Liesel van der Merwe

Yesterday I attended the oath-taking ceremony of 2024’s veterinary and veterinary nurse students. A new batch of qualified veterinarians and veterinary nurses has been launched.

The first veterinarians graduated in 1924 from Onderstepoort, so this is the 100th batch of veterinarians to graduate from this faculty. This is truly an achievement, because throughout this period veterinarians who had qualified from this faculty have been considered top notch throughout the world and have been valued for their hard work ethic, experiential training and standard of knowledge. 

Ours is a profession which demands much of us. We work long hours, often outdoors and sometimes with less than our ideal equipment or diagnostics. It also takes an emotional toll. Like doctors, we have to learn to slightly dissociate ourselves from the trauma our clients and patients are experiencing; otherwise we would break within a few years. One person cannot take on everyone’s pain and suffering.

We also have to learn that we will not cure everything and sometimes patients will still die despite us having done everything correctly or maybe even because we missed something. We are ultimately only human. In these situations we need to learn not to blame ourselves but to learn from the case, take responsibility for what happened and move on wiser. 

I have taught, pushed and prodded these students and they are of all personality types. The wonderful thing about this profession is that there is a niche for all of us – research, practice, business, teaching, farm animals, exotics, state and legislature and even just specialising in one aspect such as rehabilitation and pain management. 

Looking out at that sea of young faces, I envy them for all the new things they are about to discover. It is an exciting, yet scary time of life – just starting out in a career and having to function independently of a ‘teacher,’ they will now learn that learning is ongoing.

So many diseases and conditions will be seen in real life for the first time. Theoretical learning will be made real. Every case, every result must be ‘filed’ away to be compared with the next case or similar presentation. It’s heady stuff. Some of the advice imparted, included: “Don’t keep the microscope in the consulting room, so that you can pop out and read something up halfway through the consultation!”

No-one is so good that they don’t need to check up in the literature or a text book. A consultation with a plan is better than fishing in the dark and a client who does not appreciate that is short-sighted. Overconfidence is much more dangerous than a healthy bit of self-doubt.

Much has been said about veterinarians leaving South Africa – and they are. There are bigger practices with more professional opportunities in Australia, New Zealand and the UK as well as academic options. There are lifestyle choices which shape these decisions for them and their families. We can only hope that the country can create a space where more of our recently graduated colleagues decide to stay.