N.O.A.H ?

aonb

American friends are sending their daughter to Ireland, for a semester (Aug-Dec) as part of her Veterinary degree. She is at a college that sends students abroad to do a work placement. She is hoping to go to UCD Veterinary Hospital but asked me if I knew anything aboput the North Dublin Orthpaedic Animal Hospital (NOAH.IE) - I had never heard of it and was wondering if anyone on here has any experience/knowledge of the place? NOT from any point other than is it big/small, well known/not, comparitive to UCD Vet.Hosp, etc etc?

tk123

That's Billy McCarney's place - he's a well known ortho vet.

Toulouse

Yep, we had a greyhound with some issues due to her bladder being in the wrong place! Billy McCartney at NOAH sorted her out.

Is her heart set on Dublin? There's also another excellent referral vet. hospital in Cork.

aonb

Thanks for the replies. Are the facilities good there (from a vet med student point of view)? Is it a large practise?

She is concentrating on Dublin because her placement organisation has student accomodation in Dublin

tk123

Toulouse wrote: »

Is her heart set on Dublin? There's also another excellent referral vet. hospital in Cork.

+1 the guy in Cork trained the one in NOAH. I've only been in Gilabbey (Cork) it's big enough and they have lots of fancy equipment compared to our vets. :pac:

anniehoo

She'll get great experience in either NOAH or UCD but it will be probably be a bit more personal in NOAH. UCD is always very busy and she might find herself being a bit anonymous in such a large college environment. If she wants a large veterinary hospital experience with excellent surgeons and potentially meeting lots of new people then choose UCD. If she wants a more intimate practice experience with an equally excellent surgeon then go for NOAH.

One of the main bonus points for UCD is it's still AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) accredited so the skills taught are on par with US students.

wolfpawnat

UCD Vet hospital treats students very poorly, long hours and if you so much as question one or two of the interns, you are failed the module.


In UCD she would have the other American students (the Vet department has nearly as many North Americans as Irish these days), so she wouldn't feel lonely, but she would get better experience elsewhere perhaps. Some of the most interesting cases come to UCD, but I wouldn't put myself through it if I were her.

anniehoo

wrote:

UCD Vet hospital treats students very poorly, long hours and if you so much as question one or two of the interns, you are failed the module.

Interesting. Is that first hand experience wolfpawnat?

wrote:

In UCD she would have the other American students (the Vet department has nearly as many North Americans as Irish these days), so she wouldn't feel lonely, but she would get better experience elsewhere perhaps. Some of the most interesting cases come to UCD, but I wouldn't put myself through it if I were her.

UCD is popular with American and Canadian students as they are only 1 of 5 European Veterinary Schools currently accredited by the AVMA as I mentioned above.

wrote:

Designated by the US Department of Education as the accrediting body for the 28 schools of veterinary medicine in the United States, the AVMA educational standards of excellence are recognised worldwide as the "gold standard" in veterinary education.

With regards to Specialist Orthopaedics in Ireland, there's not very many. Gilabbey Vet (Shane Guerin) in Cork, UCD (Barbara Kirby,Aidan McAlinden,Florent David), Billy McCartney (NOAH) and Fitzpatrick referrals (Noel Fitzpatrick etc). Paul Kelly, Ratoath also.

wolfpawnat

anniehoo wrote: »

Interesting. Is that first hand experience wolfpawnat?


UCD is popular with American and Canadian students as they are only 1 of 5 European Veterinary Schools currently accredited by the AVMA as I mentioned above.

With regards the first, not myself, but members of my partners year yes. The hours are very long in some cases, and it can, on occasion, I feel lead to mistakes that may cause injury. For example, the large animal rotation hours are 7:30am to into the evening, roughly 7ish. Some days shorter, more days about that or longer. After the students finish their day, they write up their reports and study the next days cases before getting to bed. Every night there are students on call and at a moments notice, you can be called in. You are then expected to still turn up for the 7:30 start the next morning, even though the student manual says you have 8 hours off. It is the basis of a complaint to the Veterinary department at present. One student, a good close friend of my partner, had to do a 24 hour shift only last weekend. That long without sleep, and sick/scared horses, could lead to accidents.

As for the American students thing, I hope you do not think I was making a nasty comment, merely a suggestion that if the student coming to Ireland wants to have company from the US, there is a large number of students from there also. They make up a good portion of the class, which means the student would not be stuck for company. Also UCD does have a better social aspect too. The vets are fairly close as they are one of the smaller UCD Departments, so there is a good spirit among them.

boomerang

Off topic sorry but Barbara Kirby was so good to me when we were trying to get Boo admitted to UCDVH as an emergency case on a Sunday. She didn't have to, but she did and I'll always be grateful.

My impression of UCDVH is very positive, both as a client and from vet students I know that are there at the minute and vets I know that were interns there after graduating.