Hi everyone! I’m a 3rd year vet student heading into my clinical rotations in February 2022. Wondering if any of you might have some advice on how to… I dunno, survive? 😅
My first and foremost advice for stressed vet students all around the world... is DO NOT SACRIFICE SLEEP. I learned that the hard way.
You need sleep. Those extra few hours that you might try to spend reading last minute wont get you more ready. Not sleeping will make your brain feel like swimming in molasses. It slows your thinking, and you won't be able to recall info as efficiently.
I'm sure students at year 3 should already know their body's limit. I promise, your limit is still there. I won't tell you how many hours you need, you know your body better. Get those hours.
Second, don't skip meals. Try to at least get some snack if you can't get out to get a real meal. Being hungry will lower your performance and make you more nervous.
Third, you should check your course syllabus, and prepare in advance. Those early years of vet school had given you the raw data, this year you will learn how to pull those data to good use. You will learn how to systematically follow clues and solve problems according to those info that you now have.
I suggest getting a handbook with differential diagnosis techniques. It's very useful for me when I was starting out. It's like a hint book on what to do if you're stuck.
next is, you should pay good attention on how the supervisor vets talk to their clients. This is an important soft skill that often are not included in any other lessons. Learn how to handle different kinds of clients and different emotions. Clinical rotation is the perfect opportunity for you to learn by example, and also learn by doing.
Lastly, don't be afraid to ask for consultants. You are here to learn. If you're not sure, be honest and ask for help.
And, good luck! It's not as scary as you think! In fact, I think it's pretty fun, looking back. You get to exercise that brain of yours without the risk of actually facing the consequence of messing something up. You have someone who has your back. So go out there and learn!
I went to vet school in the midwest and have now worked for 2 practices that take students on external rotations for other schools (specifically, Virginia Tech and Lincoln Memorial). It seems as though my experiences in 4th year are veeeeery different from theirs - Lincoln Memorial does not, strictly speaking, have a teaching hospital, so most of their rotations must be done at external clinics, and Virginia Tech is struggling with staffing issues and many students opt to take many rotations externally to have a higher case load. At any rate, that’s just for perspective on where my thoughts will come from!
At my vet school, the expectation is that you would show up having prepared for your day’s cases, if you knew them ahead of time. Usually we would sign up for or be assigned cases the day before, but we may not have any history on the patient or even much detail on the presenting complaint (“referral from rDVM for urinary tract issues” or something similar might be all that we got until the client brought the history from their referring vet the next morning). The main thing is that if there *is* a thorough history (i.e. you’re on anesthesia and internal medicine has already done a thorough workup on your patient) then you had better KNOW YOUR PATIENT’S HISTORY and be able to discuss the pathogenesis, how it will affect their procedure, etc. But, sometimes you are going to be looking things up on the fly - you’ve gone in, gotten your history, read through the rDVM notes and diagnostic results, and now you have to go present to the clinician. A few things will come in handy here. First, a student subscription to VIN is free. VIN is mostly all I have used while being a solo doc in my first practice and where I learned my treatments and diagnostics for most ailments. You can type in symptoms, differentials, etc and normally get some kind of idea of how to proceed from either their specifically written articles or from the forums. Another great resource which you will have to pay for but is inexpensive for students, is Plumb’s, especially the app. The clinicians are probably going to make you look up doses for any drugs anyway, so it’s useful in that regard, but when you’re looking for ideas for treatment, you can actually type in symptoms to the search bar and drugs related to the symptom (i.e. PU/PD) will pop up so that can actually give you some good ideas for differentials as well.
The main thing I am looking for in a vet student when they’re on rotation with me is curiosity and a willingness to come each day prepared if possible, and look things up if you don’t know the answer. I’m not going to look down on you if you’ve never given a vaccine before, but I’m definitely going to have issues if we give you lots of opportunities to vaccinate and you start dodging them because “you’ve had enough experience now.” I’m not going to be upset if you don’t know doses for drugs off the top of your head or even which specific drug to use, but if I ask you again later I expect you to have looked it up. If I offer you the chance to do a surgery with me, I expect you to have studied the procedure the night before. Don’t ask me to fill out a form stating that you performed a task if I didn’t see you do it, and don’t ask me to sign off on a discussion item that we never discussed. The only time I’ll be disappointed in your knowledge (or lack thereof) is if you literally can’t offer any suggestions at all, or if I’ve asked you to look something up and get back to me and you never do. The only time I’ll be disappointed in your skills is if I’ve told you something (don’t stand on the leg side of a down cow) and you do it again anyway. Also, definitely don’t cuss out your doctor when I ask you to follow up with a patient. (true story!)
