RUSVM Vet Views

While living on island, Dr. Ryan Cavanaugh had a presentation about internships and how it is

not only for those who want to specialize. Internships are another year of veterinary training

under specialists. After this presentation, the idea of completing an internship after veterinary

school was seeded. Before my clinical year, I went through the VIMRP, the internship and

residency application website, to familiarize myself with the process and the practices available.

With my interest in the small animal field and living in Florida, I came across ACCESS, a private

multi-specialty hospital. I coordinated for ACCESS to be one of my externships. I spent my two

weeks within the emergency department, where I met incredible doctors and support staff. The

caseload always kept me on my feet ranging from laryngeal collapse in a brachycephalic,

tension pneumothorax from a ruptured bulla, to a ruptured anal gland abscess. It was incredible

to witness emergency cases having advanced care so quickly. The tension pneumothorax case

had his chest tapped, bloodwork, X-rays, then CT scan completed within a couple of hours.

Besides learning about medicine, I have talked to many ER doctors there about their path to

their current job (mostly internship trained) and got to appreciate it firsthand. Most important of

all, I realized that emergency medicine has truly peaked my interest and will be my first job as a

veterinarian. Since my conferral date is the end of September, I found a job willing to mentor me

prior to starting an internship next June.

Submitted by Pamela Gonzalez, Ross University