Better experience: emergency/critical care or general practice?

[sawbone]

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I'm a non-traditional student with a graduate degree in biology. I plan to apply to vet school in the next 2 years. I worked in a 5-doctor veterinary hospital while in high school as a veterinary assistant.

I recently applied for a number of positions in the geographical area of the veterinary school. They are pretty different.

One position is at an emergency / critical care / specialized surgical practice. They don't do general office visits or routine surgeries. This position would teach me the skills (catheter placement, anesthesiology, etc.) of a vet tech.

Second position is at a general practice animal hospital. They provide services from wellness care to checkups to surgery to pharmacy. This position is termed a vet assistant position. Lots of poop cleaning is anticipated.

Which position do you think would give me better experience and a greater likelihood of getting into vet school?

 

[StartingoverVet]

Personally I think it all depends on you.

If either of these practices are what you see yourself doing in the future then pick that one. Relevant experience is always a good thing to show.

Secondly, if one of them makes you more passionate about vet med, pick that one. You will probably have to describe and talk about your experiences, and it is always easier to be more persuasive when you sincerely feel positively about what you do.

Otherwise, I don't think the adcoms are really going to care one way or the other. They aren't looking for just a certain type of experience.

Seems to me, you clearly prefer the former's "skills" to the latter's "poop cleaning"

 

[deleted266066]

Ohh. I have nothing constructive to add other than that I agree with StartingoverVet.

That being said... I'm jealous!!! I think my ultimate goal is to work in an emergency practice/hospital (yes yes everyone changes their minds, but this is my current aspiration), but I don't have any real clinic tech experience so my chances at getting a job in that field are close to zero. They also typically don't take volunteers so boooo!

Anyway rant over. Carry on 🙂

 

[BlacKAT33]

Hmm specialized surgery vs. poop cleaning, I think I should just give a 👍 to startingovervet for giving a nice open ended response on your personal preferences before I say my opinion lol

 

[teatime]

Ohh. I have nothing constructive to add other than that I agree with StartingoverVet.

That being said... I'm jealous!!! I think my ultimate goal is to work in an emergency practice/hospital (yes yes everyone changes their minds, but this is my current aspiration), but I don't have any real clinic tech experience so my chances at getting a job in that field are close to zero. They also typically don't take volunteers so boooo!

Anyway rant over. Carry on 🙂

Not true! I actually just started a volunteer position today at an emergency/specialist hospital. These types of things are usually not advertised, you just have to know who the right person to talk to is, or like me, have someone else talk to that person. The vet I work for in general practice actually called up this hospital's director (she refers a lot of patients to them) and got me an in. So, something to think about!

Edit: One bad side is that I'm not allowed to actually touch anything...just watching. But still, you can learn a lot, and get a chance to talk to the vets one on one without having to worry about doing tech duties. Oh, and it was totally awesome today when they were doing rounds and talking specifically about one patient, a 9 year old St. Bernard. I actually understood like 70% of what they were talking about, thanks to my microbio class (specifically the diseases of the body systems segment). Woo, go me!

 

[deleted266066]

Not true! I actually just started a volunteer position today at an emergency/specialist hospital. These types of things are usually not advertised, you just have to know who the right person to talk to is, or like me, have someone else talk to that person. The vet I work for in general practice actually called up this hospital's director (she refers a lot of patients to them) and got me an in. So, something to think about!

Edit: One bad side is that I'm not allowed to actually touch anything...just watching. But still, you can learn a lot, and get a chance to talk to the vets one on one without having to worry about doing tech duties. Oh, and it was totally awesome today when they were doing rounds and talking specifically about one patient, a 9 year old St. Bernard. I actually understood like 70% of what they were talking about, thanks to my microbio class (specifically the diseases of the body systems segment). Woo, go me!

Hmmm that's very cool. I guess I've just been unlucky with the places I've tried (as in, they explicitly do NOT take any volunteers/shadows), but I can always see if other vets I know can point me in a better direction. Thanks for the tip! And yeah I'm quite fine with just tagging along and observing, I'd just really like to see them in action!

 

[rileydog]

I would make it clear to whichever place you decide on that your ultimate goal is vet school. At least in my experience, the vets will explain things more and mention things that will be important in vet school and on the NAVLE. For example, they may explain the scientific reasons or side effects for prescribing a certain drug, more so than they would for a tech. Both sound like they can give you great experience. As others said, whichever suits you best. Good luck!🙂

 

[PrimalMU]

I'd pick the general hospital, simply for the fact that at an emergency clinic a doctor may not necessarily have as much time to explain things to you as they otherwise would.

 

[StartingoverVet]

I'd pick the general hospital, simply for the fact that at an emergency clinic a doctor may not necessarily have as much time to explain things to you as they otherwise would.

Not to be argumentative.... ah hell, who I am kidding, I love being argumentative...

Anyway....

The specialized surgical part of the practice is probably a great place to have things explained... I have found that most vets are pretty chatty while they are doing surgery ... well, at certain points of the surgery anyway. I got to ask the most questions of the surgeon, and the least of the Internal Medicine vets.

I agree, the emergency part would be tough though.

 

[teatime]

Not to be argumentative.... ah hell, who I am kidding, I love being argumentative...

Anyway....

The specialized surgical part of the practice is probably a great place to have things explained... I have found that most vets are pretty chatty while they are doing surgery ... well, at certain points of the surgery anyway. I got to ask the most questions of the surgeon, and the least of the Internal Medicine vets.

I agree, the emergency part would be tough though.

I agree. Most of my "face time" with vets has been through watching them do surgery.

TheEvilShoe - definitely make use of any of the relationships you have with the vets you do know. Most will try to help if they can, especially if they like you.

 

[Bill59]

Either would be great experience and I doubt it would make any significant difference for getting into vet. school. So I would try to pick which one you think would be the most likely to get you a good LOR. For example, if the specialty practice has a bunch of doctors and you never work much with any one doctor it may be harder to get a good LOR. On the other hand if the gen. practice has only one doctor then you're putting all your LOR eggs in one basket.

 

[Tco87]

Everyone else has pretty much already said what I was going to say...

I second picking the place that you think you're going to enjoy working at the most. Maybe you should get more clarification about what you'll be allowed to do at the general practice. They probably do expect you to do poop-cleaning, but maybe they'd also be willing to train you to draw blood and place catheters?

I also second picking the place that's most likely to get you a good letter of recommendation and/or that's closest to what you what to do when you're a vet. I'm not an adcom, but I imagine that if you say that you're interested in ecc or specialized surgery than working there is better but if you're interested in being a general practitioner than working at the general practice is better. Again, that's just my opinion, I'm not an adcom so I wouldn't really know.

 

[Nelle22]

I have worked at 2 different small animal general practices and I currently work at an emergency clinic. I have to say that I have learned so much more at emergency than I have at the 2 general practices combined. Everyday at emergency is different and I am constantly learning. At my OSU interview, so many of the questions I was asked were relevant to my experience at emergency. I don't know if I got into school because of my experience there or if I got in because I did well in my interview. Either way, I really don't think I would have gotten in without emergency experience.

I would definitely recommend getting emergency experience to any pre-vet student. If nothing else, it can help you figure out if you are cut out to be a vet. It can be stressful and very sad but also rewarding. And I see new and interesting things every day at work, not just spays, neuters and growth removals. I have helped in several surgeries including cystotomies, GDV's and foreign body surgeries.

And I think that poop-cleaning is going to be a part of any vet assistant or tech job.

 

[bonaparte]

I'd pick the general hospital, simply for the fact that at an emergency clinic a doctor may not necessarily have as much time to explain things to you as they otherwise would.

I have to agree at least a little with this. My only veterinary volunteer experience has been in an emergency clinic and I don't talk that much with the vets. Often, my questions get ignored because they are concentrating on something else or I don't even bother asking a question because they seem too busy.

However, the techs are super nice and I have learned a lot from them. In fact, sometimes the vets will speak more if I've already started conversing with a tech.

Overall, I have really enjoyed the experience. It gives you a lot of exposure to life-death situations...

 

[VeganSoprano]

I agree with most of what has been said here. First, reality: as an entry level tech assistant, you will scoop a lot of poop. Heck, as a senior ER/ICU tech I still spend a lot of time dealing with poop. And considering the number of HGE and parvo and GI foreign body and random vomiting/diarrhea cases that make up an average ER caseload, I'd say that any quantity of poop that the ER might lack is more than made up for in quality!

I'd also be cautious about advertising your vet school aspirations too loudly at first. You were hired as a support staff team member and that is the first reason you are at work each day. Getting experience and a LOR is important but your first priority at work needs to be the job you were hired to do, otherwise you may find yourself without a job!

Overall, there should be a better opportunity to get to know the doctors in general practice or surgery. I agree that most doctors are fairly chatty in surgery! In an ER time spent with doctors is more likely to mean time neglecting your actual responsibilities. And as an entry level, you may actually spend most of your time assisting the senior techs rather than the doctors. Also, if it is a 24 hour hospital you probably won't be working with the same people every day so it may take longer to form working relationships. I'd say that is the main disadvantage of the ER. I've been at the same place for 3 years and I'm still not sure whom I will ask for an LOR. I'd say I spend about ten percent of my time directly interacting with a doctor.

Personally, I love the medicine and the adrenaline of the ER, and I love the advanced technical stuff I get to do. (I love that I've earned a reputation as the queen of female dog urinary catheters!) I find general practice kind of boring, in part because I have no interest in dentistry whatsoever, and my interest in surgery is pretty much limited to emergency surgery and high-volume s/n so specialty surgery wouldn't be my thing either. But those are just my preferences. You should definitely consider your own interests and what you want to learn more about.

Compensation is also worth considering, especially as a non-trad who presumably has rent to pay! Even if starting pay is similar, an emergency/referral practice may offer more room for growth as your skills improve. I personally am now making $6.50/hour more than I was when I started at my current practice 3 years ago! I don't think I could have done that in a general practice. A bigger practice may also be able to offer better benefits and other opportunities to increase your income such as being on call, holiday overtime, and late-night shift differentials.

Overall, you should pick the place where you think you'll be happiest.

 

[sawbone]

Just to clarify, I posted my query before I had interviewed at the second position (general practice).

Having interviewed there, I have been told I will get training in all the basic tech skills - phlebotomy, catheter placement, anesthesia, etc..

There will, of course, be poop cleaning at both positions, but the emergency hospital has far fewer patients than the general practice, which also takes boarders. We're talking a difference between 25 (max) patients and 100+ patients and boarders combined.

Another difference is that the general practice has 5 doctors and about 10 techs on at a time, while in the emergency position, I would be working with another tech and the emergency doctor, with some crossover with the surgical team.

I'm leaning more towards the emergency clinic because friends of mine who have gone through vet school have said that I would gain more valuable experience there. I have worked in a general practice before, and I've assisted through numerous wellness visits, spays/neuters, nail clipping, anal glands, removing stitches, dentals, etc.. I feel like the emergency clinic would give more 'nitty gritty' experience.

I also feel as if, being a non-trad student leaving a successful career to become a vet, it will make my application stronger if I show that I can do some of the most demanding, most heart and gut wrenching work that a vet is exposed to.

Thank you, everyone, for your input. I really appreciate it. Good luck with your applications; I'm sure I'll continue to be around on the board as I get closer and closer to applying. 🙂

 

[VeganSoprano]

That does change things a bit. 100 patients/boarders could mean a *lot* of time on kennel duty and a lot of loudly barking dogs to contend with. On the emergency side, 25 ER patients (either inpatient or outpatient) on a single shift with just one doctor and 2 techs sounds kind of scary to me. Those numbers are barely adequate for good patient care if both techs are very experienced. On the flip side, you should have a fairly easy time getting to know the doctors and you will probably learn *very* quickly out of sheer necessity if nothing else! It will probably be a great, if very stressful, learning experience.

 

[rhinocerotidae]

I've worked in both Emergency and Daytime for many years. I love them both, in different ways - they each have pros/cons.

I think no matter which one you choose, you'll like it, and either would look good on a resume. I don't think one is better then the other. If at all possible I would try to get involved at both places, even if it means to volunteer at one. ER and Daytime in my opinion are very different in the SA world, and being involved in both would give you a better perspective and understanding of SA medicine.

But either way, congrats on the job!