Monday, December 30, 2013

The Shadowing Gig

As my studying frenzy for finals was winding down, I sent an email to a specialist vet that I had met earlier in the year. She wasn't able to take on a shadow when I met her, but I figured with the three-week winter break coming up, my schedule was more flexible, and perhaps hers was now as well. She was very pleased to have me join her and her techs!

Her practice is located outside of Eugene, about 45 miles south of where I am in Oregon. I've been driving down there as often as practical and spending the day at her practice. I have friends who commute far more than an hour each way every day so I can hardly whine about this small investment of time and gas. I in fact view it as an investment, one that is necessary for my vet school applications.

The vet has been extremely kind, allowing me to follow them into exam rooms and to observe procedures. She introduces me to every single client, hardly necessary but a demonstration of how professional she is, and she even invites me to feel lumps and look under the scope when there is something particularly unusual or interesting to feel or see. Her techs have been equally helpful.

These shadow gigs are purely volunteer situations. They have to be approached realistically--the purpose is exposure. You won't learn how to be a vet by shadowing. But you can learn plenty of interesting things by observing and asking questions when you can. I think I've mentioned before that I have many, many more questions than I end up asking. The vets and techs have jobs to do, after all. They can't spend every moment talking to you. You have to high-grade your questions and ask them at appropriate times.

I remain very interested in the universe of problems that surround diet and disease--some diseases can be improved by diet, some diets can cause disease. Shadowing with this vet, a dermatological specialist, is allowing me to explore some of that universe a little more. By far the greatest number of her clients have dermatological problems caused by allergic reactions. Diet may not be important at all. But it comes up often enough to satisfy me for now.

This vet also gave me some important information about vet schools in general. Some of them utilize problem-based or case-based programs instead of formal, sequential lectures. Some schools have replaced their entire program with problem-based learning, others have replaced only the third or fourth years with it. Case-based learning is used in other industries as well and there is a ton of information about its usefulness; scholarly studies of the method suggest that it greatly improves problem-solving skills. But it has its pros and cons. One of the big cons is that most of the schools that use this method assign you to a cohort, a small group that goes through the cases together. If you get assigned to a shitty group, you are fubared with no recourse. This will certainly be a factor in deciding which schools I will apply to. Right now I'm considering five schools; the list may expand or contract and even change as I sort out my various criteria.

This Friday will be my last day with this vet. I'm ready for classes to start again but I've really enjoyed looking over her shoulder.

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