After graduating from Bristol Veterinary School in 2007, I started my first job in a mixed practice in Somerset. I was there for two years, gaining great experience and learning from a lovely group of colleagues before moving to do a Master’s degree in Wild Animal Health at the Royal Veterinary College/Zoological Society of London (RVC/ZSL). During the Master’s course I worked as a locum to earn some money while studying and I realised I enjoyed the flexibility that locum work provided.

Fast-forward five years to 2012 and I was busy working full-time as a locum in clinics across London. I was able to appreciate how varied the clinics were both in terms of the quality of care offered to their clients and how well they looked after their full-time staff (or didn’t, in some cases). Chatting with disillusioned colleagues in stressful jobs who were working long hours led me to think that there must be a better more sustainable way of working as a vet. Many of the colleagues I had graduated with were thinking of leaving, or had already left, the profession, while the veterinary press was full of stories of compassion fatigue and the retention crisis facing the profession.

From London to Bergen

About this time I had a call from the brother of a friend who ran a clinic in Norway. He was keen to understand the idea of locum vets, because they didn’t have this sort of employment in Norway. He described how they always struggled with a lack of staff over the summer months when it was busy clinically, but a lot of their own staff were on holiday (Scandinavian employers are required to give workers at least three weeks of consecutive holiday between 1^st June and 31^st August).

"He asked if I could show them, practically, how [locuming] could work"

After a few phone chats he asked if I could go out to Norway and work at their clinic for a few months and show them, practically, how it could work. So after doing much research and spending many weeks arranging my licence to practice as a vet in Norway, I duly packed my bag. In went my copy of Fossum’s Small Animal Surgery, my ‘surgical bible’, a few BSAVA manuals, the BSAVA Small Animal Formulary and the BSAVA Guide to Procedures in Small Animal Practice. All of which proved surprisingly useful.

The sun was shining as I arrived into Bergen, Norway, a city cradled between seven enormous mountains. In T-shirt and shorts I set about exploring where I was going to live for the next few months and very quickly found out about the weather! Within a few short minutes the blue sky had turned a very dark black, and it rained like I have never experienced rain before. Everyone around me untied their waterproof jackets from around their waists and donned them before carrying on as before. With no jacket I was soaked. Everyone in Bergen carries a waterproof jacket, even on the sunniest of days. Being a mountain region, the weather there is temperamental and can change within a few minutes. It turns out this is a national joke in Norway, and all over the world even, in the sunniest climes, it is possible to identify a Norwegian, because they are the one with a waterproof jacket tied around their waist.

The work

Arriving for my first day of work, I walked to the clinic to find a huge custom-built hospital. There were eight consulting rooms off the main waiting room and all the staff were in matching uniform (Scandinavia prides itself on a very flat hierarchy so all the vets and the nurses wear the same uniform, which at first  was quite confusing). The clinic had all the latest imaging equipment including MRI and CT scanners, specialist orthopaedic and soft tissue surgeons, and was like a referral centre in the UK, but also provided first-opinion care. It was quite overwhelming!

"A Norwegian dog or cat is very similar to a UK dog or cat"

After settling in and having been shown the computer system, which was in Norwegian (of which I didn’t speak a word), I started my first consults.

Needless to say the weeks flew by. A Norwegian dog or cat is very similar to a UK dog or cat, but with the added benefit of no fleas in Norway because it is so cold in the winter. The drugs are all similar too. However, there is a very strict antimicrobial resistance policy, which means penicillin is the ‘go to’ antibiotic and the potentiated amoxicillins can only be used in specific cases, which is different from the UK where Synulox is often the medication reached for.

Wellbeing and work-life balance

The other eye opener was how the practice treated their staff.  A strict eight-hour working day with a one-hour break for lunch. Lunch was provided by the clinic – a huge smörgåsbord of hams, cheeses and hard bread (knäckebröd) every day. If it was 6:05pm and your shift had technically ended at 6:00pm, everyone would eye you strangely and question why you were still at work. ‘Hand your cases to someone else and go home’, they would say. Swiftly followed by ‘What are you doing later?’. Going home, cooking and watching Netflix, was the usual plan. At which point colleagues would laugh and say ‘Come whale watching!'

This is how I found myself kayaking out of a fjord into the open sea at 9pm with my work colleagues, looking for whales. ‘What if I fall in?’ I said looking in trepidation at the far receding shoreline… ‘Don’t’ was the reply. ‘It’s a long swim back to the shore.’ The Norwegians are a crazy bunch. This type of experience was to be repeated numerous times with mountain climbing, camping, hiking, and kayaking to small islands for a late supper and some beers often well into the night. In the summertime it is only truly dark for a couple of hours at most. So you can make the most of the evenings.

"I found myself kayaking out of a fjord into the open sea at 9pm with my work colleagues, looking for whales."

By the time the experience had ended I was totally convinced that the Scandinavian attitude was the right one. They looked after their staff, there was a great work/life balance and the clinics were fabulous places to work. The feedback from the clinic was very positive and the clients were equally happy to have a UK vet looking after their pets. Many even requested to have the ‘English speaking’ vet, next time they came!

Following my time in Norway, I was approached to do the same in Sweden; an opportunity I jumped at. Again, there was the rigmarole of getting licensed and understanding the tax and immigration rules. Again, the clinic I worked in was a huge custom-built hospital with all the latest gadgetry and again, the work/life balance was fabulous. This is the life, I thought to myself.

At this point the clinics were all asking if I could I help supply more UK or English speaking vets to their clinics, and the friends and colleagues I talked to back in the UK about my experience were all eager to try it for themselves. Having done all the research to get licensed and work legally in Scandinavia, I was in a unique position to help.

Working for myself 

Nordic Locums was born, a company that aims to ‘lead by the hand’ interested vets; to get them licensed and matched with clinics in Scandinavia either for temporary (3­–6 months) or permanent positions. Initially it was a ‘side-hustle’ to my regular locum job in the UK, but as it got busier and busier, helping more and more vets experience the opportunities of Scandinavia, it became a full-time job.

Day-to-day I am now working full time for Nordic Locums. Starting around 10am and finishing around 4:30pm Monday to Friday, to fit around my children’s school drop off and collection. Often, I will work again for a couple of hours in the evening once the kids have gone to bed. I stopped clinical work 5 months ago as the Nordic Locums work got so busy (originally I was doing 2 to 3 days clinical and fitting Nordic Locums around that). It has been a shame to leave clinical practice for now as I miss the surgery and the client interaction, but I do not miss the stress and the long hours. Even though I am still working hard, I am working for myself and this makes it more rewarding and worthwhile.

I still plan to keep my hand in clinically over the next couple of years and may well go back to clinical work full-time in years to come, but while Nordic Locums is growing fast I need to put all my energy and attention into the growing business and also make sure I have time to spend with my family. 

"[the Scandinavian] attitude. . . would go a long way to improving the welfare of our veterinary colleagues"

I really believe that getting vets (and the bosses of vet clinics) to experience the Scandinavian culture and the hugely improved work/life balance that they offer and, ideally, bringing that attitude back to their own working environment, would go a long way to improving the welfare of our veterinary colleagues, improve their way of life and be one step in the right direction to fixing the huge retention issues facing the veterinary profession.

So, if you are feeling burnt out/suffering from compassion fatigue/fed up with your current lot or even just looking for a bit of a change and some fun, I implore you to try Scandinavia for a few months or years.  

Finally, whenever I talk to vets about the placements we arrange, particularly when they are feeling a little trepidatious about moving countries to work, I always finish with a warning… ‘Be prepared to love it!’. And almost without exception, they do.

Nordic Locums' requirements for working in Scandinavia:

• UK or EU passport holder
• Graduated from a UK or EU university
• Small animal vet (although we are now placing equine vets too)
• Ideally 3–5 years qualified and comfortable with routine surgical procedures and some ECC/OOH experience
• Able to commit to 3–6 months work
• Willingness to embrace a new quality of life
  www.nordiclocums.com

Timeline

2007  – Graduated from Bristol Veterinary School 

2009/2010  – Masters Degree in Wild Animal Health with RVC/ZSL

2010  – Started working as Locum in London

2015 – First placement in Norway

2016  – First placement in Sweden

2016 – Start of Nordic Locums business

2021 – Celebrated 5 years of Nordic Locums with many happy vets working both permanently or as locums in Scandinavia enjoying a much improved quality of life.