Ep 96: Stijn Niessen and Yaiza Forcada on virtual internships

Launched to its first cohort in July 2021, The Virtual Veterinary Internship – run by the US-based Veterinary Information Network – is an international online course designed to help support and guide new graduates or vets returning to the profession. The course was created in response to a growing sense of job dissatisfaction and poor welfare among young vets in practice, with aims of keeping them in the profession. It includes both clinical and non-clinical elements, and allocates each of its virtual interns a mentor – an experienced working professional who will help to guide them through the early stages of their career. Now, two years on, Vet Times editor James Westgate talks to course founders Stijn Niessen and Yaiza Forcada about the successes of the initiative, the two-way nature of a successful mentor/mentee relationship, the fallacy of impostor syndrome and the importance of making sure all veterinary professionals are able to find their “happy spot”.