A typical day during this practicum would include helping to first set up the exam rooms by cleaning them and prepping them. Then, depending on how many pets would come in that day, I would either help out on the floor or watch the appointments. When I watched the appointments, I learned a lot about patient care and helped to weigh the animals and assisted with distracting them as the vets worked to examine the animals. If I was helping out on the floor, I would help with animal restraints as the vets and vet techs did blood draws or nail clippings or anything of that sort.

By observing others and the environment around me, I noticed problems in coordination and applying care to the animal in some cases. There wasn’t always enough staff for a certain day, and the staff communicated with each other to resolve the issue. Also, surgeries and procedures are often unpredictable by nature and the vets and vet techs are trained to deal with these challenges on the fly, but it was definitely scary to witness for the first time.

I saw the vets administer a lot of different medications to the pets and this reminded me of the importance of the scientific process we learned about in SGC. Pets and pet owners are much much better off because the scientific process is so rigorous, requiring several rounds of testing, confirmation and trials to actually allow a medication to be on the market. Additionally, I also learned about cool medicines like Apoquel, which uses the body’s own mechanisms to prevent allergic reactions. Innovations like this also utilize the scientific process. To create medicines like Apoquel, they need to be synthesized in a lab. One of the courses I took for SGC was CHEM241 and CHEM231 (Organic Chemistry I and II), and the combined information from both of these courses has taught me how to synthesize complex drugs like Apoquel in a lab!

Through observing others and the environment around me I have gained a deeper understanding of the medical field, patient care and complex medical procedures. I am immensely grateful for the opportunity and have gained a lot of skills in working with others.

I learned a lot about myself through this experience! I have always been interested in learning and studying everything, so I had a really hard time narrowing down what I wanted to learn in college. This opportunity allowed me to develop skills I would need as a future veterinarian. I don’t think this opportunity required more coursework because it is so hands on and the vet staff were very willing to teach me how to do everything so I don’t think there was any need to have other preparation. The only next step I plan to potentially pursue is to take the introductory animal science class offered here because I would love to continue learning about animal care and working with animals because I absolutely loved that part of the experience. But, I don’t think this project will be a part of my future professional development, because despite the amazing staff and animals I worked with, there is a large emotional toll that comes with working in healthcare. Of course, animals are euthanized at the animal hospital, but even besides that, it is honestly really hard to consistently watch animal restraint or see animals be in pain. This made me realize that I don’t think being a veterinarian or a doctor is for me because I find seeing animals or people in pain to be really difficult. But in a less direct way, this project taught me that I was capable of learning skills I had no experience with and broadened the horizons of my knowledge by a lot because I will likely never learn about animal care in that way again. Once again, I am just so grateful that my supervisor let me join the team because I had zero prior experience and understanding and it was such an important part of my academic and professional development and really helped me figure out my future. Because of this I know I won’t have any doubt or what if about career options I think seem cool.

Within the experience, the staff would often work together to administer care to animals. For example, staff would have one or two people holding the animal while another person administers the vaccine and another person (this would probably be me) would distract the animal with pets or cheese. I think this worked well to achieve our goal and by the end of my time there I think I got much better at being in tune with other staff. It was a completely new role, but I learned a lot from it.

Yes, I would absolutely recommend this to future students because the opportunity taught me so much about what being a vet is like and what the day to day on the job would look like, which is incredibly valuable insight. The team was also really kind, showed me a lot of information and explained everything.