Back in Dusseldorf

It's nice to be back in Dusseldorf for most of this week. When I got back, my host family was like, 'we haven't seen you in a while', and they're right! I was back for Sunday night of last week after Barcelona, and not since Thursday night before then. Weird. Yesterday we had German class, then we went to a local veterinarian's office. The office itself was not at all different from an American vet's office, though a bit outdated. However, the practice was very different than what I am used to. Each doctor at that clinic sees 40-50 patients a day! Also, their clinical care did not seem quite as advanced as ours. Emergency clinics are few and far between, and this vet had 3/4 year vet students come to help her who couldn't take a temperature or listen to a heart. That was surprising. However, Dr. Wasser said that he thinks our grads are also unprepared for clinical practice, just not to the same degree. Also, they have "helpers" here, not technicians, and they are not legally allowed to take blood/urine samples or do other things that U.S. techs always do. They are not allowed to crop ears, dock tails, or declaw cats here due to animal welfare laws. (something that I'm not against!) Also, each vet school administers their own tests, and there is not national exam. It seems to me that clinical care here is much less advanced than our clinical care. Or maybe they just don't take it as seriously as we do. All their operations at this clinic are done on an outpatient basis. Very strange.

When we got back, we had a lecture on German health care by the CEO of the national doctors labor union. It was interesting to try and figure out exactly how their social health care system works, and it raised a lot of interesting questions. Basically, as the population ages, will Germany continue to be able to provide care to all citizens? Or will they be forced to pick and choose as far as procedures go. Also, I think the doctors union is a good institution. It enables the doctors to organize for better hours and pay. They recently had a strike, and the citizens were completely in support of it. I guess they understood that the people in charge of their health care should be treated well. It is an interesting system.

After that, I worked on my paper for three hours, then went back to have dinner with my host family. I'm about halfway done with my paper, and I think I should be able to finish it. I still have Thursday evening and Sunday evening, as well as Monday if I need it. Tschuss!