Veterinary school is notoriously intense. There are going to be some moments during your semester when you feel like all you have time to think about is school. The intensity usually comes in waves, giving you time to recover from exams before the next round arrives. Still, you are going to be seriously looking forward to your next break; whether it’s just one week for fall break or two months for summer, it is going to be difficult to convince yourself to do anything besides sit down and relax. While you absolutely should spend some time relaxing during breaks, I am going to make the case for giving up some of your break, dusting off the old stethoscope, and doing externships.
Your pre-clinical years in vet school are packed full of valuable information necessary to be a veterinarian. You will learn physiology, pathology, radiograph interpretation, surgical techniques, and pretty much everything in between. This mountain of information is, in most cases, covered in three years and somehow only covers the basics necessary to be a practicing veterinarian. There will still be so much to learn afterwards. For example, you are going to learn from many cadavers, but very few live animals. Cadavers are a reasonable place to start, but there is just not enough time to allow students to practice many techniques on live animals before their clinical year. Additionally, you are learning the basics. If you have any interest in specializing, doing surgery, integrative medicine, ambulatory care, or herd health, you will not get much of that in your curriculum until you are in clinicals, and even then, it will be limited. If you want to have these experiences, you are going to have to seek them out.
The way I see it, there are three main benefits of doing externships during your breaks: networking with experienced veterinarians, exploring different specialties, and applying what you have learned. My main goal during my last externships was to talk to and learn as much from the veterinarians as possible. Since my main goal is to someday own a practice, I especially clicked with the veterinarian who owned one of the clinics I externed at. I got a lot of information on ownership, how he got to where he is today, and what steps he thinks I should take to own a clinic. He also went through various procedures, not only talking about their efficacy in treating patients, but their profitability to the hospital. I spent a month there and learned more about business ownership than every other year I have worked in Veterinary medicine combined.
Gaining experience in a variety of fields was a huge benefit. Most of my experience is in large-animal ECC, so there are certainly gaps in my knowledge of non-critical cases. During my bovine-focused externship, I was able to witness and assist with some interesting cases I had never seen before. One example that comes to mind is a bull that had come in after impaling himself on a T-post. The post had penetrated through his body wall and into the right side of his abdominal cavity but somehow failed to perforate any intestine. The doctors elected to leave the wound open to drain and lavaged it multiple times daily. Over a few days, the wound began to granulate, but the bull’s os coxae seemed to become more and more defined against the skin. Eventually, the bone ruptured through the skin, and we could plainly see that a large portion of the bone was dried out and dead. I was allowed to assist in irrigating the bone saw as we amputated the os coxae, preventing the blade from getting too hot and causing thermal necrosis of the adjacent bone. Witnessing this case from beginning to end taught me more about puncture wound management, orthopedic surgical technique, and just how tough bulls are.
My month spent in a small animal hospital showed me a level of quality in small animal care that I had never been exposed to before. It is a larger practice and had seven doctors that I shadowed depending on the day. I was able to practice IV catheters, shadow the planning and execution of some TPLO’s, and learn how to perform and interpret a FAST scan. It was the first experience I had watching small animal orthopedic procedures, and I absolutely loved it. While I learned a lot from the owner about Veterinary care and business, I learned just as much from his team of doctors and technicians. It was such a fantastic environment and really helped me solidify everything I had learned up to that point.
My final externship of the summer was with a fantastic equine surgeon. Many yearlings were being sold in the area, and we spent plenty of time doing pre-sale examinations and radiographs. Having little experience in equine limb radiography, I learned a lot about identification of OCD lesions, which has really come in handy in my Diagnostic Imaging class. The large number of performance horses and upcoming shows in the area also led to a ton of lameness exams. Seeing as I was awful at identifying the source of lameness, I was able to quickly improve under the guidance I received. I was also able to scrub in for a stifle arthroscopy and an inguinal hernia repair. This veterinarian was especially generous in what he allowed us to watch, so for any surgeries that another student was scrubbed in to, I was still allowed to be in the OR to watch.
This was an amazing experience for me, despite me not planning on specializing in equine surgery. I learned a lot about what a non-boarded veterinarian can do and was able to see surgeries that I will frequently refer to a specialist. Most importantly, I got to see a different side of equine medicine than I had in the past. Most of what I had experienced up to this point was ranch or pleasure riding horses, with some occasional barrel horses thrown into the mix. With that in mind, the vast majority of cases I had seen were illnesses or sick foals. Experiencing true sports medicine on performance horses was amazing, as we were able to use medical technology that is not available for other horses, or even people. The doctor I shadowed used to be a partial owner of the hospital he works at, which was sold to a private equity group. He talked me through some of the reasons, benefits, and drawbacks of this route, and it was good to get another perspective on the corporatization of our industry. When I asked if he would ever go back to owning again, he replied that he might, but he was very happy doing what he is doing.
Taking time to relax, recharge, and socialize is something all students should do, especially during breaks. At some points during each semester, you are going to be pushing very close to your limit, so that recovery time is essential to your continued development into a veterinarian. If you can, however, externships are a wonderful opportunity to practice what you have learned, see new types of cases, and seek mentorship from experienced veterinarians.
My advice: during your longer breaks, sacrifice some time to go on at least one externship. Look for Veterinary clinics in your area, see if they pique your interest at all, and send the manager an email. Ask some of your classmates what externships they have been on and what they thought. Some externships will even pay you to be there, so you can earn a little extra money while you practice your skills. Externships are an underrated form of additional education available to you as a student, and taking advantage of this will reignite your fire for Veterinary medicine, make you a better student, and ultimately make you a better doctor when you graduate.