Clinical practice

Practising veterinarians are professionals. The diploma awarded by ULiège gives the right to practice veterinary medicine in all countries of the European Union subject to prior registration with the local Order of Veterinary Doctors, the body coordinating and regulating activities related to the practice of the profession in each country.

T

he practice may be general, including various animal species and/or the practice of clinical areas as varied as emergency management, individual or herd preventive medicine, or surgery.  The veterinarian may practice alone or in combination, and in a practice/clinic or outpatient setting.

The current trend, however, is:

1. to focus this practice on certain target species (most often pets, equidae or livestock) or a combination of some of these species (e.g. pets and equidae), and
2. to work in a team (structured as a practice or clinic) and with the help of veterinary assistants (ASV).  The management of teams and the operation of the practice or clinic requires specific skills.

The societal demand for quality animal care is constantly increasing.  In response to this demand, specializations in different disciplines of veterinary medicine have been created at the international level.

In Europe, quality standards were established by the creation in 1993 of the European Board of Veterinary Specialisation (EBVS). This organization currently supervises 25 colleges of veterinary specialists and covers more than 35 distinct specialties. These colleges have approximately 3,300 veterinarians who hold the title of specialist (EBVS Diplomat) in Europe and offer the public a high quality service in fields as varied as anaesthesia, pathology, internal medicine, surgery, ophthalmology, pharmacology, parasitology, toxicology, clinical biology, herd medicine, exotic animal medicine, or veterinary public health, for example.

The veterinary faculty of Liège has been very much part of this development and has among its teachers no fewer than 54 specialists from these colleges, most of whom enjoy wide international recognition.

Rural Focus

The "pets" orientation

The "equine" orientation