Bored by General Practice?

[NStarz]

---

Members do not see this ad.

Hi everyone! I have a question.

I've been shadowing a vet for approximately 100 hours now. I have to say, I am finding myself quite bored with the day-to-day aspect of veterinary medicine. Of course, the general practice is a very important part of vet med, but I am not interested in giving wellness exams, vaccines, flea and tick medicine, and such. Does anyone else feel the same way? I do love the continuity of care aspect of general practice, in which you develop relationships with your clients and get to see your patients grow up, but much else is pretty boring to me.

I feel like specialization is the way to go for me (maybe emergency--though I know there are boring days there as well) rather than GP. Is this opinion to be admonished? Or is it okay? I feel like in not wanting to go into GP, I am cutting myself off from a lot of opportunities and a lot of what vet med consists of. Not sure.

 

[Lissarae06]

I think it's natural to not like all aspects of vet med. Since you mentioned an interest in emergency medicine, are there any emergency vets you can shadow to gain perspective of their "day-to-day"? I think it is important to keep an open mind and get experience in a variety of fields so that you can really get a feel of what you are supposed to do. I have always wanted to go into mixed animal practice but I am keeping my mind open to other fields while I am in school so that I can be sure that mixed animal is really what I want to do.

 

[Maschka1]

I personally have aspirations of a specialty. I dont see anything wrong with that. GP is very important and some people enjoy being a spay/neuter slave 😛 but not everyone has to go into general practice. I have worked in both emergency and general practice and both have their strengths and weaknesses. Have you shadowed an emergency vet? if not I suggest you do that before you make any sort of decision. I will say that working in a general practice clinic, I was never bored. There was always a patient or something to do. When I worked in emergency, frequently no one would come in. we would just be there all night. we usually watched movies, or took turns sleeping. When things did happen it was very exciting, but also much more high stress.

So I guess what I am saying, is their is monotony to both practices. Would you rather give wellness exams or watch other people sleep? lol
In all seriousness I would investigate all your interests before giving up on one.

 

[primatevetjess]

I feel like specialization is the way to go for me (maybe emergency--though I know there are boring days there as well) rather than GP. Is this opinion to be admonished? Or is it okay? I feel like in not wanting to go into GP, I am cutting myself off from a lot of opportunities and a lot of what vet med consists of. Not sure.

If everyone went into GP, there wouldn't be any specialists! Personally, I feel like you do. I was bored out of my mind in GP and started researching other areas of vet medicine. I started working at an emergency practice as a vet aide, then continued in that field until I was a vet tech working in a very large and busy emergency/critical care practice. I love a lot of things about emergency practice, but continued searching and volunteered at Cedars-Sinai for a lab animal vet, and that is where I finally felt like I had found my perfect match.

It's perfectly okay to not want to go into general practice - it's not for everyone and a lot of people choose a different path. My suggestion is to continue getting broad and varied experience. Once you've seen many areas of the field, it will help you decide what fits you the most.

 

[SocialStigma]

I feel the same way, which is why I want to specialize in either surgery or emergency med.

 

[Willowhand]

Hi everyone! I have a question.

I've been shadowing a vet for approximately 100 hours now. I have to say, I am finding myself quite bored with the day-to-day aspect of veterinary medicine. Of course, the general practice is a very important part of vet med, but I am not interested in giving wellness exams, vaccines, flea and tick medicine, and such. Does anyone else feel the same way? I do love the continuity of care aspect of general practice, in which you develop relationships with your clients and get to see your patients grow up, but much else is pretty boring to me.

I feel like specialization is the way to go for me (maybe emergency--though I know there are boring days there as well) rather than GP. Is this opinion to be admonished? Or is it okay? I feel like in not wanting to go into GP, I am cutting myself off from a lot of opportunities and a lot of what vet med consists of. Not sure.

Doesn't sound like a problem to me. In addition to specialties, keep in mind that there are different types fo GP. For example: I don't know if you are only interested in small animal, but large animal medicine can be quite exciting at times. In addition to the constantly changing scenery as you go from farm to farm, you might often be working with critters that are large enough to flatten you. Try thinking vaccines are boring if you're trying to give them to a feral bison

 

[nyanko]

Uh, well, of course there are people who don't want to go into general practice or even clinical medicine at all. 😉

I do think that 100 hours of shadowing is sort of insufficient to make that judgment already, but once you are in school you will get some better ideas anyway. No point in worrying about it now, really, is there? You don't have to know EXACTLY WHAT YOU WANT TO DO before you even go to school. It's good that you have some idea of what you enjoy and/or don't enjoy about vet med, and it will be good for your PS, but you don't really have to choose now.

 

[breenie]

What about LA GP? I've worked as a SA assistant and do a lot of LA shadowing. They have their gruntwork (endless palpations!) and usual problems (abscesses! sore feet!), but I find those things a lot more interesting than puppy ear infections.

Anyway, I agree with everyone else. Keep looking and getting experience. You'll figure it out. 🙂

 

[DVMorBust]

My answer to the question of what I want to do when I get done with vet school is "Working with horses is still my main goal, but the only thing I know for sure is I don't want to do small animal general practice."

Some people have expressed surprise at this, but just from a 'but EVERYONE wants to work with puppies and kitties!' perspective...My reasons are:

1. Cats scare the ever-loving piss out of me
2. I think I would suffer a nervous breakdown spending all my time in one building (right now I work in the large animal hospital at school, but at least we get to go outside to do lamenesses and such)
3. I LIKE drowning in my own sweat, getting covered in a thin but persistent layer of grime, and feeling like I need a full-body massage when I get off work after a particularly rough day. Nothing ever feels better than that particular hot shower.
and maybe a 4. Carnivore/omnivore poo smells so much more horrid than herbivore poo.

So no, it's not an unheard of opinion to have. If it worries you, I'd spend some time figuring what exactly about it bores you (i.e. I don't really mind a day of vaccinations if it means being in different locations, it bores me to tears being in the same exam room).

But it shouldn't necessarily worry you. Vet med has so many things to do in it that are NOTHING like each other - of course everyone's going to have different interests in areas of focus.

 

[NStarz]

Thanks, guys! I appreciate all of your responses!

To clarify, I definitely don't think I have been in the profession long enough to make a judgment on what I want to do for the rest of my life. I think part of the issue is that I am literally just WATCHING everything that is going on. If I were tech-ing, I think I may enjoy it a little more because I would be actually be doing procedures instead of twiddling my thumbs, asking questions as they come to me, trying not to get in the way, and doing a lot of cleaning!

Part of the draw of vet med for me at least, is the "puzzle" aspect of it. I would love to wrack my brain to come up with a diagnosis and how best to proceed with a treatment plan. That just doesn't happen with vax and wellness exams. We had a kitten come in the other day, unresponsive, and it was absolutely amazing to watch the vet figure out what to do for the kitty. That's the part of vet med that I love most!

I am definitely open to any and all possibilities when I enter school. I just wanted to know if anyone else felt the same way. Thanks for the reassurance 😀

 

[nyanko]

1. Cats scare the ever-loving piss out of me

You may not want to stay at my house for Symposium then... 😉

(there are 4 here and they are all somewhat insane)

 

[Whyevernot55]

I started out in equine GP, and loved it. Still love it. That's where my heart is. I started shadowing at one, and then working in another, SA GP clinics. I was BORED TO DEATH for the first three months. There are still some parts of it that I don't like, and get sick of easily, but I enjoy it most of the time. Especially when we have a major case come in to work up. Eg, a cat came in for lethargy, turned out to have a fever and anemia, and then his EYES CHANGED COLOR. I mean really, how cool is that? Especially since we got them to change back with lots and lots of IV fluids and abx.

Basically, everyone has different goals. You're not crazy. But give it a fair shot and remember that every practice will be different, so the view you're getting of GP is not the same everywhere.

Then again, how many times do I really have to explain why flea collars don't work and why that flea stuff you bought at the pet store gave your dog a rash.

 

[VeganSoprano]

Heck yeah. General practice bored me to tears. I'm eternally grateful for those who love it because it means I get to do something else! 🙂 I'm pretty sure I was born to be in the ICU. It's pretty much my favorite place in the world. The crazier the case, the more fun it is for me. The more hectic it is, the more I actually enjoy my job.

I'm also severely SA GP-challenged because I absolutely do not like puppies, with the exception of some shelter/rescue pups. I can't even pretend to go gaga over a puppy mill or BYB yorkimaltipoopoo. I'm a really bad liar and only a slightly better actor and failing to coo appropriately over the puppy at a new puppy visit is generally bad for business. So it's a task best left to someone else. For that reason alone, I'd probably be a really crappy GP unless I worked at a feline exclusive practice.

So yeah, for me it'll be either SA E/CC or (less likely) shelter med. I'd like to become board certified in whatever specialty I pursue, but since I'd be nearly 40 by the time I finished a residency it may not be worth the opportunity cost. We'll see.

 

[deleted266066]

.

 

[sumstorm]

One thing to note is that GP practices can vary greatly as well. I have worked at GP practices where the owner/other vets had a niche interest such as behavior or rehabilitation or holistic medicine which often changed the work day flow considerably. I know a few GP's that do exceedingly little referral (and when I was a child that was the standard because specialty hospitals were very few and very distant) and consequently do nearly all the work on their patients, and I know GP's that do particular work (like ultrasound) in several clinics plus run thier own. I even know a couple of GPs that run their clinic + do zoo med at regional zoos or wildlife sanctuaries. Also, some GPs are involved in clinical trials and other programs.

I also wouldn't label GP as 'spay/neuter' slave...if you really want to see that, go to the discount S/N clinics. Even the practice that I last worked at which was primary well-care visits had its share of dentals, tumor removals, limb amputations, debridements under anesthesia, heat stroke, pyometra, etc. Many GP practices are limited more by what the clinic owner is comfortable doing. My current vet (and mentor) handles most of her client's emergencies (she came in at 9pm christmas eve for one of my dogs) and has an extremly loyal clientelle.

Having said that, I don't think there is an issue having interests other than GP and exploring other options. I enjoy emergency, and I love zoo med (apparently I am not satisfied with learning half a dozen or so species, I needed to add a few hundred more.) Part of why I like zoo med is that it meshes really well with my environmental interests and my fascination with epizootics, and I have a ton of background experience in zoos. I don't think GP is boring....just that it is a different flavor than what I enjoy (plus, with zoo med, while there are clients, they are rarely at the end of a leash.)

 

[rileydog]

Agreed. I think one of the most important things I learned working in a SA clinic for a year was that I definitely do not want my own practice or to work in a SA clinic long-term. I was much happier volunteering at a wildlife rehabilitation clinic. I would suggest volunteering/shadowing/working in a different veterinary field like emergency, LA, zoo/exotic, etc, or with a specialist to give you a better idea of what you may want to pursue. And as others have said, you do not need to know right now exactly what you want to do in your future career. While I don't want to work in SA forever, I do realize that realistically, as a new graduate, job opportunities in wildlife may not be as numerous. I know that I may end up working SA for a few years after graduation, while paying down my loans, and I am okay with that. So, yes, it is ok to not want to go into GP, but I wouldn't completely limit yourself and turn down a job if one came up.

 

[laitmanvet]

I have been working in research for years, and have known I want to go into vet clinical/translational research for a long time. Before applying I decided to volunteer in emergency vet medicine just to experience that environment. It was amazing! There was a constant stream of patients, with a broad range of problems. While I could see why vets like to work in that environment, I knew it just wasn't for me. I'm fairly laid back and I think a hectic work place would burn me out quickly. I suppose there's specialization in any field, not just vet med, and there's nothing wrong with preferring one area more than another.

 

[smilin1590]

So I was briefly skimming over this thread and thought that you were telling the poster to continue getting bored... I just thought it was misspelled. Once I figured out that wasn't what I read at all I started laughing

And in response to the original poster. I too have realized GP is not for me either hence I've been looking into many specialties. Don't forget there are other interesting specialties besides just ER vet. Do some research you'll be intrigued at what you find. Good luck!

 

[that redhead]

Out of all of the fields of vet med I've been able to participate in thus far, small animal general practice is the one I would rank lowest on my list of how I'd want to practice as a vet. I didn't ever hate it, but I understand that sometimes giving vaccines and doing only routine health visits can become mundane after a while. What kept me interested were the surgeries and different ailments that animals came in with. I love watching (and even sometimes participating in!) surgery, even the most basic neuter or lump removal. Although there were a lot of animals that came in vomiting or not eating, each case was usually something a bit different. Maybe you can focus on these things in the practice you're working in to give yourself something more exciting? If an animal comes in an is diagnosed with something, go home and look it up and learn about it. Maybe that will help keep things interesting.

I wouldn't say that this means you can't be a vet, though. There is no problem in deciding that some aspect of the career is not for you. If you were saying, "I hate working long hours" or "I hate working with clients", it would be a different issue, and certainly a problem. But having your preferences within the field is perfectly normal, I believe. If you continue in other fields of vet medicine, though, and don't find something you're extremely passionate about, then reconsider. But until then, keep your mind open 🙂

 

[FutureDVM2016]

1. Cats scare the ever-loving piss out of me

3. I LIKE drowning in my own sweat, getting covered in a thin but persistent layer of grime, and feeling like I need a full-body massage when I get off work after a particularly rough day. Nothing ever feels better than that particular hot shower.

and maybe a 4. Carnivore/omnivore poo smells so much more horrid than herbivore poo.

You are a rockstar... thank you for my morning giggle 🙂