Class of 2017.... how you doin?

Veterinary Science Graduate Programs from U. of I.
This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.
Members don't see this ad.
Filly Bay said:
I think they just don't want all of us on the rotation to take it on the same day. Some rotations don't allow anyone to take it during that block (small animal emergency comes to mind)
Click to expand...
Wow, really? There were no restrictions for us. I think everyone in my sx rotation took it in that block, we just made it work.
 
We're not allowed to take any time off of rotations period. Kind of sucks. If you miss more than two days, you can only get a pass, and not honours. That being said, I scheduled my vacation time for November and December so I didn't have to worry about that.
 
Rwwilliams said:
We're not allowed to take any time off of rotations period. Kind of sucks. If you miss more than two days, you can only get a pass, and not honours. That being said, I scheduled my vacation time for November and December so I didn't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...
Oh man. We get 6 days to use over the year. I don't think we can miss more than 1 or 2 on a single rotation without having to repeat. Leaving for a few hours for a dr's appt is exempt though
 
Rwwilliams said:
We're not allowed to take any time off of rotations period. Kind of sucks. If you miss more than two days, you can only get a pass, and not honours. That being said, I scheduled my vacation time for November and December so I didn't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...

Yup, I'd be fine with no honors. Heck I missed two days just for one injury.
 
Filly Bay said:
Oh man. We get 6 days to use over the year. I don't think we can miss more than 1 or 2 on a single rotation without having to repeat. Leaving for a few hours for a dr's appt is exempt though
Click to expand...

We had to get permission for a Dr appointment and that was considered a missed day depending on the clinician. And if you missed days, you had to make them up again depending on how the clinician determined. Some didn't care and you could miss a day or two. Some have a written assignment and others you had to spend the same number of days on the rotation at a later time.
 
DVMDream said:
Yup, I'd be fine with no honors. Heck I missed two days just for one injury.
Eh. I've had three surgery rotations back to back and want to go into surgery so I really wanted the honours.
We had to get permission for a Dr appointment and that was considered a missed day depending on the clinician. And if you missed days, you had to make them up again depending on how the clinician determined. Some didn't care and you could miss a day or two. Some have a written assignment and others you had to spend the same number of days on the rotation at a later time.
Click to expand...
Eh. I've had three surgery rotations back to back and want to go into surgery so I really wanted the honours. That's kind of how it actually ends up working for us though. The technical process through the school is filling out an absence request form, having the clinician sign it, and then getting permission from the fourth year director. If you do two of those for a rotation, you don't get honours. Any more than two and I think you're supposed to fail it, but not sure. That being said, I missed a day to present my poster at PacVet and it didn't matter because the clinician was okay with it. When I ended up getting really sick at my last rotation and had to miss a day for puking my guts out and then had to miss half a day for roughly the same thing and wound up going to urgent care, the clinician insisted that I make those days up somewhere, even though it was near the end of my rotation and I was leaving for my next rotation in Boston the day I finished in LA. That experience was really really stressful because I was incredibly sick for 2.5-3 weeks, so much so that my mum flew out and spent 4 days with me because she was so concerned, and yet I couldn't take any more time off for risk of failing the rotation and already having to make up two days.
 
Filly Bay said:
We signed up yesterday via google doc since only one person can take it per day within a rotation. I wanted the first day or the first friday but apparently they aren't letting us take it Monday or Tuesday and someone already snagged Friday. I picked Thursday Nov 17th! :scared:
Click to expand...

I took vacaaaaaation so I wouldn't have to worry about it. I used a priority on it during scheduling 4th year to make sure I got it
 
Rwwilliams said:
We're not allowed to take any time off of rotations period. Kind of sucks. If you miss more than two days, you can only get a pass, and not honours. That being said, I scheduled my vacation time for November and December so I didn't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...
Wtf. Where do you go to school again?! What if you got in a car accident?! What if you're puking your guts out?!
 
Dang. We have 4-5 "free" blocks depending on your CAE (track) but we can only use 1 for vacation. The rest need to be externships (graded pass/fail) or in house electives
 
Abnerrs said:
Wtf. Where do you go to school again?! What if you got in a car accident?! What if you're puking your guts out?!
Click to expand...
Western. I know students that have taken time off, but they generally just don't notify the school and only go through the site they're at. In the cases of those kinds of things (car accident, extended period of illness), people have generally been required to cancel that rotation and re-schedule it later, effectively delaying graduation. Two students got Q Fever last year and I think they're still waiting on getting their diploma because they had to cancel some rotations. Honestly, when I was really sick last month, I was very disappointed in the site I was at. I did not go through the school to fill out any paperwork because it wasn't a pre-meditated absence, although I'm technically supposed to. The first time, I spent all night puking and so I didn't go to the hospital and went to urgent care instead and the second time, I left the hospital around 12-1 because I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded. The first thing the preceptor said to me was that I could make the days up any time... Which, sure, I would, but I really wasn't concerned about that at the moment and I honestly should have taken more time off than I did but I just spent the rest of my time worrying about the fact that I couldn't miss any more days due to my illness because it would 1) impact my grades and 2) I didn't have any more time to make anything up at the end of the rotation. Luckily, my rotation now is much more understanding and relaxed which is great considering the doc told me it would take months to go back to normal.
 
Filly Bay said:
Oh man. We get 6 days to use over the year. I don't think we can miss more than 1 or 2 on a single rotation without having to repeat. Leaving for a few hours for a dr's appt is exempt though
Click to expand...
We only get 3 but I guess with so much allowed vacation they don't expect us to need more
 
Rwwilliams said:
Western. I know students that have taken time off, but they generally just don't notify the school and only go through the site they're at. In the cases of those kinds of things (car accident, extended period of illness), people have generally been required to cancel that rotation and re-schedule it later, effectively delaying graduation. Two students got Q Fever last year and I think they're still waiting on getting their diploma because they had to cancel some rotations. Honestly, when I was really sick last month, I was very disappointed in the site I was at. I did not go through the school to fill out any paperwork because it wasn't a pre-meditated absence, although I'm technically supposed to. The first time, I spent all night puking and so I didn't go to the hospital and went to urgent care instead and the second time, I left the hospital around 12-1 because I was feeling dizzy and lightheaded. The first thing the preceptor said to me was that I could make the days up any time... Which, sure, I would, but I really wasn't concerned about that at the moment and I honestly should have taken more time off than I did but I just spent the rest of my time worrying about the fact that I couldn't miss any more days due to my illness because it would 1) impact my grades and 2) I didn't have any more time to make anything up at the end of the rotation. Luckily, my rotation now is much more understanding and relaxed which is great considering the doc told me it would take months to go back to normal.
Click to expand...
That sounds insanely rough. We only rotate out of the hospital for a month for our preceptorship, and 2 weeks for our SIPE (but you can do 2 of those if you want so 4 weeks total). The only other time we're out is for shelter med.
 
Have a meeting with the intern director at a place I really want to match today and I have a whole page of questions for her. Too much? Also, pup definitely has food allergies 🙁 Ran out of ultamino and picked up a cheap bag of whatever and she immediately started itching and licking again. First positive food trial I've ever had!
 
They told me I "ran out of money to borrow"

giphy.gif


I told them they are wrong, there is no way that's the case. She argued with me. I told her we needed to chat with her supervisor.

Surprise surprise, I did NOT in fact run out of money. They just ****ed up.
 
Today's my last day at this shelter externship and I don't want to leave. Animal shelters are my happy place. Hopefully I can keep this high going until my next externship in 10 weeks.
 
Rwwilliams said:
We're not allowed to take any time off of rotations period. Kind of sucks. If you miss more than two days, you can only get a pass, and not honours. That being said, I scheduled my vacation time for November and December so I didn't have to worry about that.
Click to expand...

Honors? ROFL! Who the heck cares about honors? It's fourth year. Finish, graduate, never look back.
 
LetItSnow said:
Honors? ROFL! Who the heck cares about honors? It's fourth year. Finish, graduate, never look back.
Click to expand...
The kid who wants a surgery residency cares about honours 😉 Honestly, I don't think honours is all that difficult to get as a fourth year at my school, so it's kind of a matter of "why not?"
 
I don't normally make posts like this so I'm probably going to delete (please don't quote)... I wish I could say I'm having a good time with clinics but I'm not. Granted, I just came off of 6 weeks straight of large animal patient care blocks that I had to take even though I am small animal focused. Ross makes us track mixed even if we have no interest in a particular species. I was grateful for the large animal rotations for NAVLE review but it was hard to get invested in my patients and hard for me to care when they told me in my evals that my large animal knowledge was lacking. Does that make me a horrible person?

What is most concerning to me is that many mornings I woke up and just wished the day was over so I could be back in my bed. I often times just would dread going in to the hospital and questioned if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I'm really hoping things get better now that I'm on small animal rotations from now until graduation. I don't know what depression feels like but I'm really worried I'm heading down that road. I know I have anxiety that makes certain aspects of clinics really challenging but it seems like I have anxiety about my anxiety so it's hard to even work up the nerve to go talk to someone. I've noticed myself become really antisocial and really easy tasks seem impossible at the end of a long day. This morning was the first morning in 6 weeks that I got to sleep in and I really just wanted to take a personal day but my parents are here visiting and I'm sick so I was forced to entertain (and wake up earlier than I wanted just so they wouldn't witness me laying in bed all day) while feeling crummy.

Also...I wish someone would have told me that planning a wedding while in clinics was a horrible idea. My poor fiance...he asked if I wanted to put in an hour of wedding planning and I just started crying because it seems so overwhelming and at the end of a long day the last thing I want to think about is colors or cake or who should sit next to who. I so wish we had the money for a wedding planner because at this point he has planned more than I have lol I am so thankful for him...he is a saint for putting up with me during all of this 😍 Thanks for reading, and sorry if I sound overly whiny. Someone please just tell me life after clinics is better.
 
@allieh8607 I can't tell you it gets better, because I'm just a fourth year like you. My school does clinics third and fourth year and I definitely felt a little bit that year during clinics just because of poor site choice by the school. That being said, I definitely don't envy being in your position! Vet school is stressful, planning a wedding is stressful -- I couldn't imagine doing both at the same time! I think burn out is real and we forget that sometimes. I know my school never talked to us about getting burnt out. I'm not sure what your schedule is like, compared to mine, but on days that you have off, take them 100% off. I try to study for NAVLE during my down time in clinics (if it's present), and I hardly touch it during the weekends. I feel like it's really important to make sure you have time to just be a normal person and do what you want whether that's going out to a bar or sitting at home and playing video games in your underwear. My inbox is always open if you need an ear to listen.
 
allieh8607 said:
I don't normally make posts like this so I'm probably going to delete (please don't quote)... I wish I could say I'm having a good time with clinics but I'm not. Granted, I just came off of 6 weeks straight of large animal patient care blocks that I had to take even though I am small animal focused. Ross makes us track mixed even if we have no interest in a particular species. I was grateful for the large animal rotations for NAVLE review but it was hard to get invested in my patients and hard for me to care when they told me in my evals that my large animal knowledge was lacking. Does that make me a horrible person?

What is most concerning to me is that many mornings I woke up and just wished the day was over so I could be back in my bed. I often times just would dread going in to the hospital and questioned if this is what I want to do for the rest of my life. I'm really hoping things get better now that I'm on small animal rotations from now until graduation. I don't know what depression feels like but I'm really worried I'm heading down that road. I know I have anxiety that makes certain aspects of clinics really challenging but it seems like I have anxiety about my anxiety so it's hard to even work up the nerve to go talk to someone. I've noticed myself become really antisocial and really easy tasks seem impossible at the end of a long day. This morning was the first morning in 6 weeks that I got to sleep in and I really just wanted to take a personal day but my parents are here visiting and I'm sick so I was forced to entertain (and wake up earlier than I wanted just so they wouldn't witness me laying in bed all day) while feeling crummy.

Also...I wish someone would have told me that planning a wedding while in clinics was a horrible idea. My poor fiance...he asked if I wanted to put in an hour of wedding planning and I just started crying because it seems so overwhelming and at the end of a long day the last thing I want to think about is colors or cake or who should sit next to who. I so wish we had the money for a wedding planner because at this point he has planned more than I have lol I am so thankful for him...he is a saint for putting up with me during all of this 😍 Thanks for reading, and sorry if I sound overly whiny. Someone please just tell me life after clinics is better.
Click to expand...

I did enjoy clinics but there were definitely days where I felt similarly. We were married between 2nd and 3rd year so that wasn't as big an issue but still a pain in the rear. If you think you need to talk to someone about how you're feeling, do! Life after clinics is different - not better, not worse - but you will never stop needing a mental health day or just a break from it all every now and then.
 
I booked my flight and hotel to Thailand for my shelter externship. So excited and only slightly terrified!
 
Starting oncology today... a subject my school did nothing to prepare me for. I'm so ready for the next four weeks of knowing nothing!
 
Rwwilliams said:
Starting oncology today... a subject my school did nothing to prepare me for. I'm so ready for the next four weeks of knowing nothing!
Click to expand...

I have really good Onco study guides I can share with you if you'd like! They cover the big cancer types- mast cell, lymphoma, HSA, OSA and chemo drugs. I also have the Withrow and Macewen onco book which I love. Just let me know! I love onco 😀
 
allieh8607 said:
I don't normally make posts like this so I'm probably going to delete (please don't quote)... I wish I could say I'm having a good time with clinics but I'm not. Granted, I just came off of 6 weeks straight of large animal patient care blocks that I had to take even though I am small animal focused. Ross makes us track mixed even if we have no interest in a particular species. I was grateful for the large animal rotations for NAVLE review but it was hard to get invested in my patients and hard for me to care when they told me in my evals that my large animal knowledge was lacking. Does that make me a horrible person?
Click to expand...

Regarding the LA stuff .... I went to a school where I could track, so I didn't do a single LA rotation. Even on my clinical pathology rotation the final exam allowed you to evaluate a LA <or> SA case. I really didn't do any significant LA the entire year.

But had I been in your situation and forced to do it? I would have gotten horrible evals. I would have been told every LA rotation about how my knowledge was lacking. And I would have shrugged and ignored the feedback so long as I passed the rotation(s).

So no. I don't think it makes you a horrible person. I would have been in exactly your shoes.
 
LetItSnow said:
Regarding the LA stuff .... I went to a school where I could track, so I didn't do a single LA rotation. Even on my clinical pathology rotation the final exam allowed you to evaluate a LA <or> SA case. I really didn't do any significant LA the entire year.

But had I been in your situation and forced to do it? I would have gotten horrible evals. I would have been told every LA rotation about how my knowledge was lacking. And I would have shrugged and ignored the feedback so long as I passed the rotation(s).

So no. I don't think it makes you a horrible person. I would have been in exactly your shoes.
Click to expand...

Agreed with this. We did have to take a couple weeks LA and couple weeks equine even on SA track and I largely just did the work to the best of my ability, didn't even read my evaluation just checked for passing grade and celebrated being done with LA forever.
 
Kpowell14 said:
I have really good Onco study guides I can share with you if you'd like! They cover the big cancer types- mast cell, lymphoma, HSA, OSA and chemo drugs. I also have the Withrow and Macewen onco book which I love. Just let me know! I love onco 😀
Click to expand...
Can I has too?

Re: LA stuff... we "track," but my focus area still had me take a couple equine rotations. You just gotta take what you can from them. I said a lot of "well if she were a dog..." and spent a bunch of time looking stuff up. Our clinicians didn't really care if you didn't know things off the top of your head, just that you were actively trying to learn.

Iunno. Found those rotations kind of fun, but they probably would have gotten really old if I had more than a few.
 
Trilt said:
Can I has too?

Re: LA stuff... we "track," but my focus area still had me take a couple equine rotations. You just gotta take what you can from them. I said a lot of "well if she were a dog..." and spent a bunch of time looking stuff up. Our clinicians didn't really care if you didn't know things off the top of your head, just that you were actively trying to learn.

Iunno. Found those rotations kind of fun, but they probably would have gotten really old if I had more than a few.
Click to expand...
Sounds about right. On my four weeks on equine often times the clinicians would try to compare and contrast things to small animal for the benefit of those of us not interested in LA.
 
Frozenshades said:
Sounds about right. On my four weeks on equine often times the clinicians would try to compare and contrast things to small animal for the benefit of those of us not interested in LA.
Click to expand...
Lol I wonder if they ever do the opposite...small animal clinicians saying "and in the horse this would blah blah" or "and this is also applicable to elephants because..."
 
WildZoo said:
Lol I wonder if they ever do the opposite...small animal clinicians saying "and in the horse this would blah blah" or "and this is also applicable to elephants because..."
Click to expand...


I should have expected your examples to turn to elephants/exotics, but I didn't, and I just snorted my lunch.
 
PrincessButterCup said:
I should have expected your examples to turn to elephants/exotics, but I didn't, and I just snorted my lunch.
Click to expand...
"No, this case actually has no relevance to the red-headed rock agama at all. Please stop asking me about reptiles."
 
Trilt said:
Can I has too?

Re: LA stuff... we "track," but my focus area still had me take a couple equine rotations. You just gotta take what you can from them. I said a lot of "well if she were a dog..." and spent a bunch of time looking stuff up. Our clinicians didn't really care if you didn't know things off the top of your head, just that you were actively trying to learn.
Click to expand...

I got great evals on my food animal rotations (that I voluntarily signed up for) because I did the same thing - took what I knew well in small animals and tried to apply where I could and look up where I could. I did take the FA med courses too, but just still didn't have the same background as the large animal tracking kids in my class. Still though...probably some of the better evals I got all year, haha.
 
Kpowell14 said:
I have really good Onco study guides I can share with you if you'd like! They cover the big cancer types- mast cell, lymphoma, HSA, OSA and chemo drugs. I also have the Withrow and Macewen onco book which I love. Just let me know! I love onco 😀
Click to expand...
Yes please!! I would love that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

overcastkidjuno
Class of 2028... how you doin?
Replies
22
Views
4K
BioAg22
BioAg22
IvyMoose
Class of 2027... how you doin'?
2 3
Replies
114
Views
14K
thenontraveler
thenontraveler
K
Class of 2026... how you doin'?
3 4 5 6 7
Replies
303
Views
37K
futuredogtor614
futuredogtor614
PhiloslothicalStudent
Class of 2025... How you doin’?
6 7 8 9 10
Replies
490
Views
82K
TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo
TheGirlWithTheFernTattoo
K
Online, Self-Paced Animal Nutrition Class?
Replies
5
Views
527
Koffeekat
K
Top