Getting Experience

One of the requirements needed to apply to all US vet schools is at least 300 hours of experience in a veterinary clinic or vet research laboratory setting. Most pre-vet students get that experience while in high school or as undergraduates so I'm pretty behind the curve.

This experience doesn't have to be paid work. In fact, something called "shadowing" is acceptable. To be a shadow, the pre-vet student arranges to spend time in a local clinic a few hours a week. The shadow is mostly supervised by a vet tech but may interact with a vet every so often.

This experience is also critical in meeting another strict requirement when applying to vet school: at least one letter of recommendation from a practicing vet.

It has taken me quite a bit of time to get a shadowing arrangement set up. Some clinics don't want non-employees in their facility. Some physically don't have the room. Some don't want the trouble of dealing with a potentially incompetent human in the mix. Others already have a full complement of three or four shadows.

The other issue I had to manage was finding blocks of time large enough to spend significant time at the clinic that would also work with my class schedule. For example, most surgeries, which are very exciting things to observe, are done in the mornings but my class starts at 10am for the next three weeks then shifts to 8am for four weeks after that so mornings are not really the best times for me, at least this summer (I have to factor in transit time to and from the clinic plus my biking time to campus).

I had a false start at one clinic that was in a town near Corvallis. I won't mention any details; you'll see why in a moment. The experience I had there in just two and a half hours was quite eye-opening on a number of fronts. I got to observe a BC get prepped for a neuter surgery, then observe the surgery itself (the prep took about 20 minutes, the surgery was over in less than two minutes). That was certainly exciting. However, this particular clinic was a mess. I could barely see any organization to the place, boxes and supplies stacked anywhere and everywhere. The place wasn't even particularly clean. After asking what I thought were innocent questions about staffing and shifts and such, it became clear that there was a lot of ill-will between the techs and the vets. Any time red flags start popping up within minutes of casual conversation, you know you have a dysfunctional organization. And then the vet, who had been sleeping in the back after working an early-hours emergency, stumbled out. He treated the techs so rudely and with such disdain that I was embarrassed to be a witness to it. It was unprofessional and petty. But like I said, eye opening. The smart student will learn things even from negative lessons.

I didn't call the office manager of that clinic back to discuss setting up a long term shadowing position. While I would no doubt learn many amazing things, I wanted to find a more positive learning environment.

It took me a while but I've managed to arrange to shadow at the clinic that I am using for my own animals. I'm very happy about this because I chose that clinic based on how I felt when I took one of the dogs there. At this point, I'm pretty picky about the clinic and the vet that I want for my dogs (the cat comes along for the ride). I had really good vibes the first time I visited this clinic. My first day as a shadow confirmed that my intuition was spot on.

On my first day, I got to observe two abdominal ultrasounds performed by a local mobile specialist, a problematic blood draw on a very sick dog, and a basic exam of a ferret (did you know that when you scruff them and let them dangle down, they go more or less limp?), and hold one large dog for a vaccination, hold a small dog for an ear clean and nail clip, and even interact (that is, speak to) two human clients. The last bit was particularly exciting because shadows are often not allowed to touch patients or speak to clients.

The clinic is well lit and spacious. There are a couple of nooks and back closets with disorganized junk in them but the space was mostly clean and organized. The two techs there that day were busy but managed to find time to give me little tasks to do and to answer my questions (I am trying to focus on observing but I can't help asking questions every so often). I even got to talk to the mobile ultrasound specialist for a bit to ask her about her business model (extremely successful, by all considerations).

Three hundred hours, accrued three hours at a time.