Whether it's rotations, CEMS, or an additional placement, seeing practice is one of the best ways to turn theory into something clinically useful. It is also variable. Some days you’ll be invited into interesting cases, taught patiently and trusted to practise skills; other days you may feel as though you’ve spent most of your time standing slightly in the way.
You can’t control the caseload, the staffing levels or whether the day descends into chaos before 10am. But you can control how you approach the placement. The students who get the most out of rotations and CEMS are usually not the ones who know the most before they arrive. They are the ones who are interested, reliable, helpful, and actively thinking. In this article, I'm going to give you some top tips for getting the most out of any time you spend in practice, based on my experiences as a student and as a vet with students too.
Practice teams are busy, and teaching students is only one part of the day. As a student, you're used to the day being structured around teaching you, but to staff on rotations it's easy to be just another burden. I vividly remember a head nurse losing her rag with our group hanging around and pointing out she has to teach the same things over and over, because we all move on soon as we learn. When you remember that, it becomes easier to understand.
Turn up on time, dress appropriately, bring what you need with you. Be polite to the whole team. Offer to help. Learn your way around. Make a round of tea - it makes a real difference. Try to read the room, too - if everyone is busy and stressed, quietly find someone you can help, rather than expecting a learning opportunity to arise out of nowhere. Sometimes the best lessons come when cleaning kennels and mucking in.
And that leads me to my second suggestion - building trust. Students sometimes feel that practical opportunities are random, but they often come from trust. A vet or nurse is more likely to let you place a catheter, scrub in, examine a patient or practise a technique if they have seen that you listen, follow instructions and recognise your limits. Mucking in with the less fun stuff is one of the best ways to show you're here to learn, no matter what.
When talking to staff, it helps to be specific. “I’m trying to get more confident with blood sampling - could you please let me know if there are any suitable patients today?” is much easier to act on than “I’d like to do more practical things.” Patient welfare and workflow come first, but if the team knows what you are working on (and they like you, because of point 1!), they are more likely to spot opportunities for you.
The dramatic cases are memorable, and of course you should learn from them when they appear. But most of your future clinical life will be built around common presentations, not rare textbook curiosities.
The itchy dog, vomiting cat, lame Labrador, dental patient, rabbit that isn’t eating, vaccine consult, calf pneumonia case, flock lameness problem or equine colic work-up may teach you more than the unusual surgery everyone is talking about. Common cases are where you learn pattern recognition, communication, prioritisation and practical decision-making.
And just in case I wasn't clear above, I was the student who missed out on a GDV surgery because there wasn't space - so I stayed and helped the remaining nurse with the wards. That meant replacing a load of catheters, a patient lesson in saphenous catheterisation, and a whole load more hands-on than standing in the corner of a GDV surgery with three other students craning to see anything worth looking at.
Which smoothly brings me onto the next point. I vividly remember zoning out during surgery - its hot, and if you aren't actually doing the op then it becomes difficult to concentrate on the 50th dental you've seen. Or yet another vaccine consult. But passive watching is one of the easiest traps in seeing practice - you'll waste your day and not actually learn anything new. Instead, try to run the case in your head. What are your differentials? What questions would you ask? What would you check on clinical exam? What would make you more worried? What would you do next?
You don’t need to say all of this out loud. The point is to keep your brain involved. Afterwards, compare your thinking with what happened. Did the clinician ask something you missed? Did they choose a different test? Did they explain uncertainty in a way that worked well? That comparison is where a lot of the learning happens.
A good question shows that you have already engaged with the case. “Can you explain pancreatitis?” is hard to answer in the middle of a busy day. “I noticed you didn’t start antibiotics in that pancreatitis case — was that because there wasn’t evidence of sepsis?” is much easier to teach from.
Useful questions often start with what you noticed - it shows you were paying attention (see point 4!). Just try not to phrase it like you know better than the vet and you're judging them - that never goes down well!
I cannot stress enough how much veterinary nurses know, and yet I still see vets acting like they're better than them. Veterinary nurses are often some of the best people to learn practical clinical skills from. Anaesthesia monitoring, inpatient care, pain scoring, catheter care, bandaging, fluid therapy, theatre preparation and patient handling are all areas where nurses have a huge amount to teach.
The same applies outside small animal practice. Grooms, stockpeople, technicians and experienced handlers can teach you a great deal about animal handling, logistics and what is actually practical in the real world. Students who only follow the vet miss a lot.
Practical skills are not all-or-nothing. Even if you can’t place the catheter, you might be able to set up the kit, talk through vein choice, calculate the fluid rate or observe what made the attempt difficult. If you can’t perform the surgery, you can still practise scrubbing, gowning, gloving, instrument handling or simple suturing on a model. You could even take parts of the surgery - do the scale and polish, then pass to the vet. Do the stitch up, but not the splenectomy.
By breaking it down into parts you'll get more opportunities to practice, and you won't be significantly extending anaesthetic time, which is a major concern with students operating.
There will be downtime. Use it to review a case, look up a condition (especially something you can see coming up on the diary), check on the inpatients (and look at their history), or review what's in the pharmacy - there are a bewildering number of ear preparations to get used to! It's likely the vets and nurses will still be busy, so you may not be able to ask questions, but you can still find something to learn.
Try not to default to scrolling. You may be reading something educational, but it may not look that way and can cause resentment. If you are using your phone to check a resource, it’s often worth saying so.
Being in practice is tiring, so you don’t need to revise an entire topic every evening. If you have the energy, choose one thing from the day and follow it up while it is fresh. That might be a drug, a differential you missed, a blood result pattern, a communication phrase or a condition you want to understand better.
A small amount of targeted follow-up is more useful than an unrealistic plan to read around every case. This is where trusted vet student resources, formularies, clinical articles and evidence summaries are helpful: they turn one case into one manageable learning point.
If you're too exhausted, that's ok too. Part of rotations is about learning to be in practice - and that means learning to look after yourself. Being tired now doesn't mean you'll struggle at being a vet - constantly learning, having to think about your behaviour, trying to build rapport... it's exhausting, and it's ok to take a break.
Reflection does not need to be long to be useful. As you travel home at the end of the day, ask yourself:
Five minutes of honest reflection is better than a perfect write-up you never get around to doing. If you struggle with this, why not try to do it with friends? Even if you are on placement alone, you can make a pact with a friend to reflect together - a quick question text ("what was the weirdest case you saw today and why?") can make sure you both get a chance to reflect on what you saw.
Seeing practice is not about proving that you already know enough. It is about learning how clinical work happens: how teams communicate, how common cases are managed, how uncertainty is handled, and how theoretical knowledge becomes a safe plan for a real patient.
If you leave a placement better at approaching everyday cases, asking useful questions, working with the team, checking reliable resources and spotting opportunities to learn, that is a successful placement — even if you did not see the most exciting surgery on the board.
Good luck - we look forward to welcoming you to the profession when you get here!