If you can't draw blood out of a dehydrated kitten while blindfolded and one hand tied behind your back, you have to sit on the Group W bench during clinical skills. (BTW, when we kids were little and my mom worked late a lot, my dad would sing to us, "You can get anything you want, at Dad's Restaurant," as he billed mac n' cheese as "tonight's orange vegetable.")
Marycatherine, my only SA experience has been shadowing, in which the most I was allowed to do was pet some of the more friendly animals. I was there to observe and learn about what it was like to be a vet. The one time I did try to be helpful and help clean up, it was quite clear that I was more in the way than I was helpful due to not knowing the protocols for that clinic. I followed my friend around and stood in the corner for OP appointments, put a mask on and observed surgery, and sat in her office reading textbooks or shadowed other vets when she had to do her charting.
At the place where I work currently (equine), only licensed techs are allowed to take blood from the jugular or place catheters. We non-licensed techs must use the cephalic, the saphenous, or the facial venous sinus to take blood. We ARE allowed to re-suture catheters and extension in adults if the catheter is being positional or the horse has managed to rub out the sutures. At my previous job (equine, part ambulatory/part horsepital), I took blood from the jugular (and RARELY sedated horses/gave IV drugs off the needle) but never placed or sutured catheters. As for what I've been doing, drawing blood has been a fairly small part of my job at both places, except for times at my last job when we had to do Coggins for large barns, then sometimes the vet and I would split up or trade off paperwork vs. drawing blood. What have I been doing? Well, it depends.
Now (horsepital): Taking vitals. Giving meds via catheter. Giving IM, PO, topical meds. Setting up drugs for next shift. Spiking and hanging fluids. Arguing with fluid pumps. Putting ice boots on horses. Sitting on next to flailing dummy foals, and lifting/helping them to stand. Cleaning diarrhea butts. Laundry. Cleaning diarrhea butts again. Cleaning under draining tracts and wounds. Hot-packing abscesses and veins that have had catheter reactions/infections (the really sick horses are prone to getting lumps at the site of the catheter). Milking mares. Grooming horses. Picking out stalls. Running bloodwork. Holding horses/odd tasks for the residents. (At my old job, there was more job overlap, and I also did a lot of cleaning, restocking, inventory, answering phones, billing, etc.)
Ambulatory: Setting up/holding plate for radiographs. Drawing up meds for vet to give. Restraining horses. Jogging/lungeing horses for lameness exams. Gathering meds to dispense to client. Giving PO meds. Writing out findings and instructions for client after getting directions from vet. Cleaning wounds. Carrying, fetching, and handing stuff to vet. Clipping and scrubbing joints. Giving vaccines. Doing paperwork for Coggins. Keeping track of whose horse got which drugs. Taking equipment out/putting it away. Talking to chatty clients so the vet can actually get work done. Restocking truck at end of day (keeping running list during day). Asking questions (oh, wait, that wasn't my job, but the vets were awesome about answering questions and discussing cases).
DVMDream, I'm happy to teach anyone about horses. I think you learn different things doing tech work vs. shadowing vets, and there are merits to each, but ultimately I think I gain more relevant knowledge from watching and discussing cases than being caught up in having to be the one to keep the horse from moving or carry out the doctor's orders without being able to have discussions about why we are doing x, y, and z. While I will need some basic tech skills to be able to do my job as a vet, a) there are many technical skills that I won't learn until vet school and beyond, like joint injections, placing abdominal drains and chest tubes, etc. and b) being a vet is just as much, if not more, about knowing WHEN and WHY to do things than the physical act of doing them, which does not require another 4 years of school.
