Specializing--Advice?

[NStarz]

Hi everyone!

So, I've known for a long time that I wanted to pursue a specialty. I'm very strongly leaning towards ER/CC right now. What can I do now to make me competitive for internships/residencies in the future?

I'm pretty lucky in that I've come into some money recently and will be graduating with <100k in debt (I know, I'm sorry ). So I'm pretty good financially (won't have to worry too much about postponing a vet salary to specialize.

I'm going to spend as much time as I can in the vet hospital this summer seeing emergency cases; I've also contacted a potential mentor who has been awesome and has been trying to line up opportunities for me. The problem is, my research project mostly involves night and weekend work, so I feel like I'm going to miss out on a lot of cool ER cases because of that. I'm going to try and get into the local specialty practice (higher case load) for a day or two (they limit the number of days you can hang out there because they want to provide opportunities for everyone that wants them). I'm doing research in an unrelated field this summer (behavior), but it will hopefully lead to a publication. Most of the ER doctors at OSU are 75% clinical and 25% teaching/research so they don't take on a ton of research projects. My mentor said that she has my name down if something were to come up to help out with a research project. I'm also spending some time with a shelter vet this summer (I miss it :/).

I have a bit of leadership experience (prez of behavior club, TA for a shelter enrichment class we have here), but couldn't get elected into a position in the ECC club (they elected all 2nd years, I'll try again next year). I worked at an ER before I came to vet school, so I know the field pretty well (or so I think).

What else should I be doing? I'm going to go to the IVECCS symposium this fall. My GPA right now is between a 3.0 and a 3.5; I'm going to work on bringing it up, but I seem to be stuck in B land in vet school :/

I would really appreciate any advice anyone has!!

Thanks all

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[shortnsweet]

Do you have to go the internship route? I know of a bunch of final years who are just jumping straight into ER practices. You'd get a better salary than an intern. As long as you have some good mentors. I don't know that much about small animal though.

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[NStarz]

Do you have to go the internship route? I know of a bunch of final years who are just jumping straight into ER practices. You'd get a better salary than an intern. As long as you have some good mentors. I don't know that much about small animal though.

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Technically, I don't think you need an internship. You may be able to jump right into ER practice, but most residencies require a rotating internship first. So that's kind of where I'm heading right now. Plans may definitely change, however!

 

[jmo1012]

ER doctor is definitely not the same thing as an ECC specialist...

that being said, it sounds like you're doing everything on the list that our specialists always tell us to do to be as competitive as possible. i think the research project you're doing is more important that shadowing/working at an ER hospital - it will make you special and unique so don't think you're losing out there! as for academic research, it doesnt have to be in that field specifically - look for anything thats open (again, uniqueness factor)

 

[NStarz]

ER doctor is definitely not the same thing as an ECC specialist...

Definitely, thanks Jmo!

I was a bit worried that behavior would be seen as "soft" but it's definitely important research I'll be doing, and it should lead to a publication (which my undergrad research didn't do), so that's definitely a plus.

Thanks for your input