I'm an intern....

[david594]

... and I love it!

I know match time is coming up for the 2014'ers on here and I just wanted to tell you guys I am an intern and I absolutely love my job.

I work crazy hours, it's stressful, and I easily spend 80-100+ hours per week at work, but after 7 months I can say I have zero regret with the decision! I learn so much every day its absolutely amazing and my internmates are some of the best people in the world. I get paid next to nothing(relatively speaking), but at the same time I learn far more in any given day then I did when I was paying for clinics as a senior veterinary student so it's not such a horrible deal. Also for those wondering I didn't do an internship because I didn't feel ready to practice at graduation. I did an internship because I want to be the absolute best doctor I could be when I was 1 year out of school. And I cant imagine any way of getting more training in less time than through a good internship.

So good luck to you all!

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[WhtsThFrequency]

Hey you!!! Are you doing lab animal stuff now (i think I remember you were into that?) or general medicine? Good to hear from you!

 

[david594]

Just a rotating intern at a large private practice with a very ER heavy schedule. I'm applying to ECC residencies for next year.

 

[NStarz]

Just a rotating intern at a large private practice with a very ER heavy schedule. I'm applying to ECC residencies for next year.

So you decided to take the ECC plunge. Congrats! I will have to pick your brain if I see you when I'm there in May!!

 

[racccjlm]

Thanks for sharing the positive perspective We've all heard about how grueling an internship year can be --- but multiple interns I've spoken with have relayed that it's what you make of it. And good for you - emergency! Keep us updated on how the residency process goes for you.

 

[nyanko]

you haven't talked to me since I decided not to extern at your clinic bro...

 

[david594]

2.5 weeks left and I still don't regret a single second of it!

For those of you starting this week:
Good luck and enjoy every moment of your internship! It will be tiring but also an incredibly rewarding experience. You will learn more than you could possibly imagine!

 

[racccjlm]

I know I posted this before but to reiterate, thank you for the positive perspective. I started out on emergency overnights, having never done emergency work. And I was without an in-hospital back up clinician for the majority of each shift (residents were great about taking my calls.) Panic, terror, dread, exhaustion. And I'm still kind of in a hyper-tense mode a week after. But I also realize that I learned a hell of a lot that first block, and that it will get easier with time. I didn't want to spend years before gaining confidence, and this experience is going to require it.

 

[david594]

Racccjlm: Good luck with your internship!

This year has been hard but with 5 days left I still have zero regrets. The only thing I am sad about is the prospect about leaving my internmates. I learned so much that I have no doubt it was worth the horrible hours and pay. I had a lot of intern-trained veterinarians tell me doing an internship is a no-brainer and I think they were all right. The beginning of this week my replacement started and this has helped to show me just how much I have learned this year.

Good luck to all of you this year! Do your best and learn everything you can!

 

[racccjlm]

I'll try to soak it all up Congrats on finishing your internship!

 

[jmo1012]

Wow congrats on finishing!! Mind if I pick your brain about a few things? I am very interested in an ECC residency eventually and i am super struggling with figuring out PP vs academic internships and residencies. I don't ultimately know if I want to be in academia someday as an end goal. I do know that I want to be at a big referral practice with resources and many specialties (who knows if itll happen, but thats the dream right now). so, for a few questions if you dont mind:

-How many did you apply to and were they strickly PP or did you have a mix?

-What specific things were you looking for when picking your internship?

-How did you choose PP vs academic internship?

-If you were thinking about pursuing a residency when you were considering internships, did you want to be in a PP vs academic residency? (i know i say i'll go where they'll take me, but if you could have had your pick, did you want one vs the other?)

-How well do you feel your internship has prepped you for being a good candidate for a residency spot? (less emphasis on what you learned and more on LORs/mentors/etc)

-General advice?

 

[Bracco Pointer]

Wow congrats on finishing!! Mind if I pick your brain about a few things? I am very interested in an ECC residency eventually and i am super struggling with figuring out PP vs academic internships and residencies. I don't ultimately know if I want to be in academia someday as an end goal. I do know that I want to be at a big referral practice with resources and many specialties (who knows if itll happen, but thats the dream right now). so, for a few questions if you dont mind:

-How many did you apply to and were they strickly PP or did you have a mix?

-What specific things were you looking for when picking your internship?

-How did you choose PP vs academic internship?

-If you were thinking about pursuing a residency when you were considering internships, did you want to be in a PP vs academic residency? (i know i say i'll go where they'll take me, but if you could have had your pick, did you want one vs the other?)

-How well do you feel your internship has prepped you for being a good candidate for a residency spot? (less emphasis on what you learned and more on LORs/mentors/etc)

-General advice?

I'm in a similar spot and I'll also be really interested in some advice and answers to these questions.

I know I'm still in the "crazy ambitious/optimistic" phase, but I'm pretty set on an ECC residency, with a possible end goal of being in academia or large referral practice.

Do you think it's possible to complete an ECC residency and have a family? I feel like criticalists are less likely to be married with kids than others (or maybe just the ones I know, ha).

Also, I'm currently at the University of Florida.... my husband is starting his own large animal practice here, my family is here, and I really don't want to leave the area. Am I putting myself in an impossible position if I wanted to do an internship and residency and only apply to UF? Am I nuts to think that's possible?

 

[deleted498041]

Wow congrats on finishing!! Mind if I pick your brain about a few things? I am very interested in an ECC residency eventually and i am super struggling with figuring out PP vs academic internships and residencies. I don't ultimately know if I want to be in academia someday as an end goal. I do know that I want to be at a big referral practice with resources and many specialties (who knows if itll happen, but thats the dream right now). so, for a few questions if you dont mind:

-How many did you apply to and were they strickly PP or did you have a mix?

-What specific things were you looking for when picking your internship?

-How did you choose PP vs academic internship?

-If you were thinking about pursuing a residency when you were considering internships, did you want to be in a PP vs academic residency? (i know i say i'll go where they'll take me, but if you could have had your pick, did you want one vs the other?)

-How well do you feel your internship has prepped you for being a good candidate for a residency spot? (less emphasis on what you learned and more on LORs/mentors/etc)

-General advice?

I want all these answers too!

Also, I've heard a huge concern with internships and residencies at the moment is that there isn't much moderating done with regards to whether these are "worth it" or really just poorly paid associate positions. How can someone entering the match ensure that their choices are places that they'll learn a lot from and will prep them for boards, instead of just making them do everyone else's projects they don't want to do?

 

[JaynaAli]

I want all these answers too!

Also, I've heard a huge concern with internships and residencies at the moment is that there isn't much moderating done with regards to whether these are "worth it" or really just poorly paid associate positions. How can someone entering the match ensure that their choices are places that they'll learn a lot from and will prep them for boards, instead of just making them do everyone else's projects they don't want to do?

Many places will welcome a visit or interview. That gives you a chance to scope out the place. Also, talking to their current and past interns/residents is very helpful. I was looking at a private clinic for a rotating internship and spent spring break past year working/shadowing there. I told them I was interested in them and they included me in everything and I got tons of one on one time with the doctors and interns to chat about their program...might be different in an academic internship.
I've since decided to forgo an internship and do clin path instead and all the schools I've contacted have encouraged me to visit if possible, gave me dedicated time to talk to each resident, and gave me email addresses of the current and past people to talk to. I've been told by my advisors that if a place isn't willing to let you to talk to previous participants that's possibly a red flag.

 

[deleted498041]

Many places will welcome a visit or interview. That gives you a chance to scope out the place. Also, talking to their current and past interns/residents is very helpful. I was looking at a private clinic for a rotating internship and spent spring break past year working/shadowing there. I told them I was interested in them and they included me in everything and I got tons of one on one time with the doctors and interns to chat about their program...might be different in an academic internship.
I've since decided to forgo an internship and do clin path instead and all the schools I've contacted have encouraged me to visit if possible, gave me dedicated time to talk to each resident, and gave me email addresses of the current and past people to talk to. I've been told by my advisors that if a place isn't willing to let you to talk to previous participants that's possibly a red flag.

Thanks for the advice
How likely is it that a previous participant will badmouth their intern/resident site, though, no matter how true it may be?
I'm currently externing at a place I'd love to get matched with in a few years, but haven't mentioned that to them because I figured I was still too early in my career to be memorable at all -- I just finished my first year of vet school. Is that an accurate thought, or is it never too early to contact a place and say "Hey, I may want to get matched here. Can I do an externship with you guys to feel it out?"?
I previously aimed to do a private practice internship and then residency but was encouraged my professors to do at least my internship at an academic institution instead.

 

[JaynaAli]

Thanks for the advice
How likely is it that a previous participant will badmouth their intern/resident site, though, no matter how true it may be?
instead.

Probably depends how bad it was and how long they've been out. I've talked to quite a few people about clin path residencies and I've been cautioned about a couple. They didn't say "absolutely don't come here" just things like they didn't think it matched with them or there were personality clashes or they didn't think it was a program that matched what I was looking for...I can read between the lines.

I think there was also a thing on VIN somewhere where they did an anonymous survey about quality of programs. I vaguely remember seeing it.

As far as private vs academic, I'm not much help. I think private used to be more frowned upon but is gaining validity as programs put out well trained people. At the private place I went to, there were 4 board certified surgeons and they did basically everything my school does procedure wise. Sure, it's maybe less prestigous, But in some ways, they got to be more involved with surgeries and got more personal mentorship because the doctors didn't have to teach and do research and things like that. Plus in academia you'll likely be in charge of students, which isn't everyone's cup of tea.

Unfortunately, other than just talking to everyone you can at conferences and by email, I don't know of a lot more you can do.

For how early is too early...idk. I went to a school to talk about their residency spring break of my second year. They seemed surprised I was looking that early because most of their visitors were at least 3rd years, but at the same time I think that made me more memorable, personally.

 

[Kpowell14]

I will be following this thread pretty closely to see the answers to other peoples questions as they are many of the same questions I have!

Thanks to everyone offering such good advice and encouragement!!

 

[david594]

Wow congrats on finishing!! Mind if I pick your brain about a few things? I am very interested in an ECC residency eventually and i am super struggling with figuring out PP vs academic internships and residencies. I don't ultimately know if I want to be in academia someday as an end goal. I do know that I want to be at a big referral practice with resources and many specialties (who knows if itll happen, but thats the dream right now). so, for a few questions if you dont mind:

-How many did you apply to and were they strickly PP or did you have a mix?

For my internship my goal was caseload and to see and manage as many cases as possible in that year. So my #1 was a private practice*(and where I ended up) and I followed it with a bunch of academics. In total I applied to a silly number(23? Half private practice, half academic) because I had no geographic restriction and I wanted to be somewhere.

-What specific things were you looking for when picking your internship?

Case load! My goal for my internship was to be the best doctor I possibly could be at the end of 12 months. And to me I felt the best way to accomplish this was seeing and managing as many cases as possible. Another requirement for me was that the hospital had basically all of the major veterinary specialties.

-How did you choose PP vs academic internship?

This is a hard decision as they both have pros and cons. Many private practices have higher caseloads although academics likely have more time for didactic rounds and non-ER rotations. Since I wanted ECC I was ok with a program with an ECC bias(70+% ER).

-If you were thinking about pursuing a residency when you were considering internships, did you want to be in a PP vs academic residency? (i know i say i'll go where they'll take me, but if you could have had your pick, did you want one vs the other?)

I wanted an academic residency actually and mostly for the support on the research side of things. I have a lot of studies I would love to do in regards to veterinary medicine and I think private practices generally lack the support services for getting grants and getting papers published.

-How well do you feel your internship has prepped you for being a good candidate for a residency spot? (less emphasis on what you learned and more on LORs/mentors/etc)

Having only ever done one internship I don't have much to compare it to, but I was very pleased with my training. And most of the residencies I interview with seemed to appreciate that I had to handle a much heavier caseload at a private practice and should not have an issue with a veterinary school caseload. I never felt like a private practice residency put me at a disadvantage when applying for academic residencies.

-General advice?

Do an internship! Accept the fact that you will have almost no life outside of work. And finally make it the best year of your career!

In hindsight I laugh about some of the silly mistakes I made, but I also think some of the cases I had as an intern will be highlights of my career!

 

[david594]

I'm in a similar spot and I'll also be really interested in some advice and answers to these questions.

I know I'm still in the "crazy ambitious/optimistic" phase, but I'm pretty set on an ECC residency, with a possible end goal of being in academia or large referral practice.

Do you think it's possible to complete an ECC residency and have a family? I feel like criticalists are less likely to be married with kids than others (or maybe just the ones I know, ha).

My family consists of my cat so I can't really speak towards this question. I do think this could be very challenging through. As an intern(and now as a resident) I've had many days where I've stuck around work after hours to see/learn from the cool case. I have an automatic feeder and litter box for my cat so the 18 hour days are less of an issue, but I think a family could be less forgiving in this situation.

Also, I'm currently at the University of Florida.... my husband is starting his own large animal practice here, my family is here, and I really don't want to leave the area. Am I putting myself in an impossible position if I wanted to do an internship and residency and only apply to UF? Am I nuts to think that's possible?

If they ECC department likes you enough that this is not impossible. I'd probably be more concerned for the post-residency time frame and finding a job if you have heavy geographic restrictions.

 

[david594]

Thanks for the advice
How likely is it that a previous participant will badmouth their intern/resident site, though, no matter how true it may be?

Most people I've met have been very willing to be honest about their internship experience. I think if you talk to someone in person you will get a pretty clear yes/no opinion from them regarding their internship. I easily averaged 80+ hours a week at mine and am more than willing tell people I think it was worth while.

I'm currently externing at a place I'd love to get matched with in a few years, but haven't mentioned that to them because I figured I was still too early in my career to be memorable at all -- I just finished my first year of vet school. Is that an accurate thought, or is it never too early to contact a place and say "Hey, I may want to get matched here. Can I do an externship with you guys to feel it out?"?

I think its worth while to ask for info regarding their internship program, but I would definitely try to get back there in person around residency interview time if you are really hoping to end up there.

I previously aimed to do a private practice internship and then residency but was encouraged my professors to do at least my internship at an academic institution instead.

There are good and bad academic internships as well as good and bad private practice internships. And they all have pros's and cons. I think you need to look at what your long term goals are before deciding which one will be best for you.

 

[Bracco Pointer]

Thank you, David594, for taking time to answer all of our questions so thoroughly!

 

[Kpowell14]

Yes, Thank you @david594 !!