Studying in Switzerland: An Erasmus Adventure

Rebecca Grace, Liverpool Graduate 2020

Having just survived 4th year exams and an Easter of EMS, last April I moved to the University of Bern in Switzerland for my first day of rotations as part of the Erasmus program. This was equally one of the scariest, exhausting but most rewarding experiences I’ve ever had. I lived in Bern for 3 months, during which I spent a month in each of their equine, small animal and farm hospitals. Having never been to Switzerland before and arriving slightly misinformed about the language they speak in Bern (turns out they speak Swiss-German rather than French) and not previously having done any equine clinical EMS, my first ever days of rotations were interesting to say the least! However, pretty soon we got into the swing of things and all of the students and staff were beyond welcoming.

Their rotations were organised quite differently to Liverpool. The students could choose to spend 3 months in the hospital of their choice out of Equine, Farm, Small Animal or Pathology; with a month spent in each of the others and the remaining time for revision; doing their Master Thesis’ (dissertation type task) and any externships. This meant that there were between 5-10 students in each of the hospitals at one time. This was great for the practical experience, but not so great for the night shifts, which were absolutely exhausting. The equine hospital was split into medicine and surgery, and I spent 2 weeks on each.

We had a lot of responsibilities in the running of the hospitals especially out of hours, which were sometimes sole charge. We had walkie talkies with alarms, so that if we fell over someone would come looking for us and if we were lucky we had students from lower years helping (especially with foals). This was a bit daunting, especially with my lack of German. One time I spent 10 minutes searching the medication shelf for Spazieren which was written on all the horses’ plans, only to find out that it meant I needed to take the horse for a walk! In the small animal hospital I spent a week (and many night shifts) in the emergency and ICU, which felt like a baptism of fire. There were GDVs, heartworm cases, pneumothoraces, every type of effusion, as well as many wildlife cases too. Luckily most of the clients spoke French so I was able to consult as well as spending time in ICU triaging. Additionally, I did anaesthesia, radiology and medicine/cardiology which were fairly similar to Liverpool.

The farm animal hospital was the most different to home and at the busiest we had 35 inpatients. There was a lot of surgery, and every patient had haematology, biochemistry and a catheter as standard on admittance. The animals are worth more over there, and some animals were even helicoptered down mountains to come to the hospital! It was very hands-on. I got to scrub into a caesarean, RDA, LDA, foreign body surgery, we got to practice teat surgery and I really enjoyed being able to work cases up with diagnostic tests and imaging.

There were also routine fertility visits (I’d never pregnancy diagnosed with a mountain view before). It was lovely getting to know the farmers, as well as being treated to homemade bread, swiss chocolate and homemade cordial cooled in fountains that come from the mountains. They also had a dedicated pig clinic where we would do daily clinical exams of inpatients as well as farm visits: creating reports and practising skills such as blood taking, abscess treatments and castrations.

I would really recommend Erasmus to everyone, it was honestly one of the best things I’ve ever done. As cheesy as it sounds, I have made friends for life and the confidence and the skills I gained were invaluable. Despite all the sleep deprivation and translation issues, I would do it all again (and I’m already heading back in May for electives)

Erasmus+ - Each of the UK universities does things differently: some don’t offer Erasmus+ at all; some only offer it if you intercalate. At Liverpool, you can apply to Oslo, Helsinki, Paris, Ghent, Zurich or Bern. With the complications of Brexit, who knows what is going to happen with this amazing programme in the future, but you should definitely look into what is available nevertheless. There is a lot of paperwork and criteria to apply, but it is definitely worth it. You are also entitled to a grant (of varying amounts depending on where you go) which is definitely useful as it’s free money! However, the living costs in a lot of the countries are at least double the UK. It is possible to do it on a budget, but if you want to fully explore the country while you are there, then costs (especially travel) do add up.