Career profile: Rebecca Geddes, Lecturer in Small Animal Veterinary Internal Medicine

What is your job?

My title is “Lecturer in Small Animal Veterinary Internal Medicine”. I am a veterinary surgeon, but I have specialised in internal medicine (a broad specialty in the veterinary world, including diseases of most of the internal organs and their hormones). I now work at a University doing a mixture of teaching, clinical work and research.

How did you become a Lecturer in Veterinary Internal Medicine?

I went to Cambridge University as an undergraduate and completed a six-year degree in veterinary medicine. I then worked as a small animal vet in primary care practice for three years before deciding to pursue further qualifications. I started at the Royal Veterinary College in London as a postgraduate student, and completed a PhD, then a one-year internship and finally a three-year residency in small animal medicine, before being offered a job there as a Lecturer.

What do you do day-to-day? 

On days when I am on clinics, we start with rounds at 8.30am and discuss all of the internal medicine patients currently in our hospital. After rounds, the day is spent examining patients, performing investigations to make diagnoses for each patient, discussing findings with the residents, and undertaking teaching sessions with the undergraduate students. The investigations we usually perform for internal medicine include taking blood and urine samples, ultrasound or CT imaging, endoscopy (using cameras to look into parts of the body, e.g. up the nose, into the bladder or into the stomach), and taking biopsy samples.

On days when I am not on clinics, I might be marking, undertaking research (my own or alongside my undergraduate and postgraduate students), reading or writing scientific papers or putting together presentations. The research can involve computer-based work, laboratory-based work and lots of statistical analysis!

What qualifications and skills do you need for your job? 

A veterinary degree, a specialist veterinary diploma +/- a PhD (so rather a lot of qualifications!).

Why did you want to become a Lecturer in Veterinary Internal Medicine?

Because I was interested in performing research and finding out more about disease to help my patients. I also really enjoy communicating and teaching what I have learnt to others, both students and qualified vets in practice.

What do you love about your job? 

The variety! It is rare that two days or certainly two weeks are the same. I like spending time on lots of different aspects of my work.

What do you find difficult about your job?

Juggling lots of different things and competing deadlines at the same time.

What advice would you give someone interested in becoming a Clinical Lecturer? 

Anyone interested in becoming a veterinary surgeon should try and get some work experience organised to see if the realities of the job match your impression of it. Having said that, once you have the degree there are so many different pathways you can go down within your career. Talk to as many different people as you can about being a vet and how they have found the experience.

How might your job change in the future?

I hope to continue to progress in my career within the University. How much research I do myself may change over time, and the focus of the research might shift slightly too, but I would like to continue all the different aspects of my job for many more years.

Where can I find out more? 

Contact The Royal Veterinary College (https://www.rvc.ac.uk/), or any of the other UK veterinary schools to discuss applying for a degree in veterinary medicine.