Has anyone recently gone on a RAVS trip?

This forum made possible through the generous support of SDN members, donors, and sponsors. Thank you.

Trilt

puppy snuggler extraordinaire
Lifetime Donor
15+ Year Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2008
Messages
12,683
Reaction score
25,605
I searched, but pretty much all the posts on RAVS on here are waaay back into my pre-vet days. I was hoping someone has done a trip in the last couple years and can possibly give me some feedback - especially would be awesome if they'd done it as a vet student and gotten to experience the surgical bit.

Just wanted to know how your trip was organized, how you felt about it, what sort of things you got to do, etc. :) The 2015 schedule is supposed to be posted mid-November, so I'm currently just waiting and scheming.

Members don't see this ad.
 
Shoot. Some classmates of mine just did a lunch talk on their RAVS trip the other day and I didn't go. From what I've heard in passing from several people, they seemed to enjoy their time.

Sorry, I know that's not exactly helpful.
 
I've been on two trips - I believe they were in 2012 and 2013, respectively. I loved them, so much fun. I went on one week trips, though as of this year, most of them have been changed into 2 week trips, which I've heard is much more exhausting. You can expect, at most, 1 day of surgery per week of the trip, that's how it was for both trips I went on. There are also some wellness-only trips. The things you'll do most of, which are also super helpful and good for you are client education, massive amounts of physical exams and anesthetic monitoring. The HSVMA-hired doctors were all super awesome, and the volunteer vets I worked with were great, too. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions. I'm not sure what else to say except that I liked it enough to do two trips.
 
Members don't see this ad :)
went in 2013, loved it! yes the 2 weeks was exhausting, but totally worth it! its definitely not much surgical experience, but it is excellent field medicine and client communication experience. my trip mates and i had an amazing time.
 
I went a couple years ago (I think after my first year?) and it was fantastic. Contrary to jmo1012's experience, I felt like I got a LOT of surgical experience on it. Plus anesthesia experience, plus physical exam and client communication stuff.

All in all, well worth it.

That said, we have a "mini-RAVS" organization here at UMN (called SIRVS) that serves the MN rural reservation communities; it was formed after RAVS backed out of Minnesota. I had already had 3-4 trips on SIRVS before RAVS so I felt pretty ready to hit the ground running when I went on RAVS. SIRVS is modeled directly after RAVS, even down to using similar paperwork.
 
i guess with regards to sx experience, its not the same amount or type of surgical experience as those who do spay/neuter trips to international places like nicuragua. that was totally fine with me, but i've had multiple people ask me that specific question
 
Shoot. Some classmates of mine just did a lunch talk on their RAVS trip the other day and I didn't go. From what I've heard in passing from several people, they seemed to enjoy their time.

Sorry, I know that's not exactly helpful.

No worries! Even hearing a generally positive feeling is helpful. :)

I've been on two trips - I believe they were in 2012 and 2013, respectively. I loved them, so much fun. I went on one week trips, though as of this year, most of them have been changed into 2 week trips, which I've heard is much more exhausting. You can expect, at most, 1 day of surgery per week of the trip, that's how it was for both trips I went on. There are also some wellness-only trips. The things you'll do most of, which are also super helpful and good for you are client education, massive amounts of physical exams and anesthetic monitoring. The HSVMA-hired doctors were all super awesome, and the volunteer vets I worked with were great, too. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions. I'm not sure what else to say except that I liked it enough to do two trips.

Oh I'm mildly sad to hear they're mostly two week trips now... we'll see how that'll work with clinics. I was feeling like it'd be nice to just have to squeeze one week into my schedule!

went in 2013, loved it! yes the 2 weeks was exhausting, but totally worth it! its definitely not much surgical experience, but it is excellent field medicine and client communication experience. my trip mates and i had an amazing time.

I went a couple years ago (I think after my first year?) and it was fantastic. Contrary to jmo1012's experience, I felt like I got a LOT of surgical experience on it. Plus anesthesia experience, plus physical exam and client communication stuff.

All in all, well worth it.

That said, we have a "mini-RAVS" organization here at UMN (called SIRVS) that serves the MN rural reservation communities; it was formed after RAVS backed out of Minnesota. I had already had 3-4 trips on SIRVS before RAVS so I felt pretty ready to hit the ground running when I went on RAVS. SIRVS is modeled directly after RAVS, even down to using similar paperwork.

Thanks guys! More PE/anesthesia/communication skills are definitely good things, and I have other sources for pure surgical skills. If you remember, what sort of drug protocols were normal?

I'm jealous of your mini-RAVS! :/ We have one trip in our school that's similar, but it's put on by our Christian vet group and that is rather decidedly not my crowd.
 
No worries! Even hearing a generally positive feeling is helpful. :)



Oh I'm mildly sad to hear they're mostly two week trips now... we'll see how that'll work with clinics. I was feeling like it'd be nice to just have to squeeze one week into my schedule!





Thanks guys! More PE/anesthesia/communication skills are definitely good things, and I have other sources for pure surgical skills. If you remember, what sort of drug protocols were normal?

I'm jealous of your mini-RAVS! :/ We have one trip in our school that's similar, but it's put on by our Christian vet group and that is rather decidedly not my crowd.
i vaguely remember telazol being the drug of choice (if not that then maybe ket/xyl?) for premeds/induction and then iso for maintenance. what ever it was we premeded/induced with made for really prolonged recoveries (like hours and hours) with propofol reserved for only the most compromised cases.

you could put this back to back with a vacation block quite nicely, otherwise i think 2 weeks and then back to clinics would be rough because on top of really long days and physically exhausting work, you'd be crossing time zones as well.
 
i vaguely remember telazol being the drug of choice (if not that then maybe ket/xyl?) for premeds/induction and then iso for maintenance. what ever it was we premeded/induced with made for really prolonged recoveries (like hours and hours) with propofol reserved for only the most compromised cases.

you could put this back to back with a vacation block quite nicely, otherwise i think 2 weeks and then back to clinics would be rough because on top of really long days and physically exhausting work, you'd be crossing time zones as well.

I was thinking of sneaking a one week session into one of my vacations, but if they're mainly two weeks now, we'll just have to see if I can make something work! I'm doing enough crazy traveling for things already, don't want to make life too much harder in clinics than it already is.

PS: I'm super impressed you're responding to this while on medicine. Thank you!
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
I was thinking of sneaking a one week session into one of my vacations, but if they're mainly two weeks now, we'll just have to see if I can make something work! I'm doing enough crazy traveling for things already, don't want to make life too much harder in clinics than it already is.

PS: I'm super impressed you're responding to this while on medicine. Thank you!
my brain is swiss cheese, and i deserve some semblance of a break somewhere...right? err right.
 
I've been on two trips - I believe they were in 2012 and 2013, respectively. I loved them, so much fun. I went on one week trips, though as of this year, most of them have been changed into 2 week trips, which I've heard is much more exhausting. You can expect, at most, 1 day of surgery per week of the trip, that's how it was for both trips I went on. There are also some wellness-only trips. The things you'll do most of, which are also super helpful and good for you are client education, massive amounts of physical exams and anesthetic monitoring. The HSVMA-hired doctors were all super awesome, and the volunteer vets I worked with were great, too. Feel free to PM me if you have specific questions. I'm not sure what else to say except that I liked it enough to do two trips.

I was on the 2012 team to the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Were we on the same trip?!

Anyway, to answer @Trilt 's question... I went as an undergrad to gain small animal/shelter medicine experience and it was and still is the best veterinary experience I've ever had! Like others have said, it was an exhausting week. Our days started between 5-6am and often didn't end until around 10-11pm. But as an undergrad, I was accepted by everyone on the team including vets and vet students and allowed to do many of the same things the students were allowed to do (minus surgery). It was such great experience and I learned so much in only 1 week. Now that I'm in vet school, I can't wait to do another trip! I probably won't be able to go this upcoming summer, but I plan on applying for a trip for summer 2016. Although I can't offer insight from the RAVS vet student perspective yet, if you'd like I can definitely put you in touch with some of the teammates I am still in contact with if you have questions!
 
Last edited:
I was on the 2012 team to the Lower Brule Sioux Reservation in South Dakota. Were we on the same trip?!

Anyway, to answer @Trilt 's question... I went as an undergrad to gain small animal/shelter medicine experience and it was and still is the best veterinary experience I've ever had! Like others have said, it was an exhausting week. Our days started between 5-6am and often didn't end until around 10-11pm. But as an undergrad, I was accepted by everyone on the team including vets and vet students and allowed to do many of the same things the students were allowed to do (minus surgery). It was such great experience and I learned so much in only 1 week. Now that I'm in vet school, I can't wait to do another trip! I probably won't be able to go this upcoming summer, but I plan on applying for a trip for summer 2016. Although I can't offer insight from the RAVS vet student perspective yet, if you'd like I can definitely put you in touch with some of the teammates I am still in contact with if you have questions!

I went to Standing Rock both years.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1 user
Members don't see this ad :)
Heh. I was on that trip. Or the 2011 trip. I'm having trouble remembering.

...I think you were! I just realized you're at Minnesota and if I'm remembering right, you had just finished up your first year. Sending you a PM now!
 
Oh god I really hope this doesn't become a common thing on applications:

What inspires you? (140 CHARACTER MAX [twitter size])
Who does that. Twitter is not for motivational posts, it's for bitching about the person in Starbucks spelling a name wrong or something.
 
What does twitter size mean? I don't even use twitter...

What inspires you? Is that seriously a question on the RAVS application? What teenager did they employ to write applications?
 
All of the trips say waitlist. What are the odds of actually getting selected for a trip?
 
All of the trips say waitlist. What are the odds of actually getting selected for a trip?
hmm, i just submitted an application and all the trips said open...
 
All of the trips say waitlist. What are the odds of actually getting selected for a trip?

hmm, i just submitted an application and all the trips said open...

Ditto. Just submitted and they definitely show up as open for me?

I would hope they weren't already waitlisted, the application just opened for new volunteers!
 
Just submitted mine and one of my roommates had to listen to be attempt to be inspirational
 
Rejected for this summer. Slow burn. The email said they would be notifying for all the trips within the next few days so keep an eye out for that and good luck.
 
Trilt, not sure if your are still wanting info on RAVS trips, but I did the 1 week trip to White Mountain last year (Spring break 2014) as a vet student. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I actually got to do surgery for 2 days in that week and I got to do a lot (this is not common as others have mentioned). I think the level that they let you perform depends on- the vet teaching, your skill level, how long they have been under (they have strict time limits for anesthesia so if you are slow the vet takes over). They weren't fans of allowing students to open the body wall during spays, but I got to do everything other than that- Full neuters, full spays, assist with cryptorchids.
As far as White Mountain in particular. The days were very long and I got very little sleep. The building you are in isn't actually sealed so it got VERY cold at night, so make sure you bring a very warm sleeping bag and mat so that you aren't sleeping on the floor. I can't emphasize a warm sleeping bag enough cause I froze! I had to steal the warming pads from the surgical tables! There was plenty of coffee present so you probably don't need to take your own coffee maker unless you are a coffee fiend! Very rarely the food ran out before everyone got a chance to eats, so I would take enough food to keep you going if that happens to you. We got to shower almost every night, but I guess this is not always the case.
I had a blast and met a lot of great people!!
Let me know if you have any other questions.
 
Trilt, not sure if your are still wanting info on RAVS trips, but I did the 1 week trip to White Mountain last year (Spring break 2014) as a vet student. It was one of the best experiences of my life! I actually got to do surgery for 2 days in that week and I got to do a lot (this is not common as others have mentioned). I think the level that they let you perform depends on- the vet teaching, your skill level, how long they have been under (they have strict time limits for anesthesia so if you are slow the vet takes over). They weren't fans of allowing students to open the body wall during spays, but I got to do everything other than that- Full neuters, full spays, assist with cryptorchids.
As far as White Mountain in particular. The days were very long and I got very little sleep. The building you are in isn't actually sealed so it got VERY cold at night, so make sure you bring a very warm sleeping bag and mat so that you aren't sleeping on the floor. I can't emphasize a warm sleeping bag enough cause I froze! I had to steal the warming pads from the surgical tables! There was plenty of coffee present so you probably don't need to take your own coffee maker unless you are a coffee fiend! Very rarely the food ran out before everyone got a chance to eats, so I would take enough food to keep you going if that happens to you. We got to shower almost every night, but I guess this is not always the case.
I had a blast and met a lot of great people!!
Let me know if you have any other questions.

That's actually a super amazing comment - just got notification earlier today that I was selected for the White Mountain trip, so pending my background check going well (and it better, haha!) I'll be there in March. :D I was already excited, and you just boosted me up even more!

Questions, hmm...How scary is the practical skills assessment? How many vets are there to vet students and other people? Any other tips or things you'd suggest in particular to prep?

Rejected for this summer. Slow burn. The email said they would be notifying for all the trips within the next few days so keep an eye out for that and good luck.
Sorry to hear that! I know the summer is supposed to be uber competitive. :(
 
That's actually a super amazing comment - just got notification earlier today that I was selected for the White Mountain trip, so pending my background check going well (and it better, haha!) I'll be there in March. :D I was already excited, and you just boosted me up even more!

Questions, hmm...How scary is the practical skills assessment? How many vets are there to vet students and other people? Any other tips or things you'd suggest in particular to prep?

Congratulations! I am jealous. I decided not to do it again this year but I miss it!
I think there were about 10 vets and 30 students. About 5 people do surgery every day, and the others are split into anesthesia, and intake. I think everyone was really nervous about the surgical skills test, but it really wasn't so bad in my opinion. the videos were really helpful. A few people failed it and the group was given the option to let them re-take it or not (meaning more surgery days for everyone who passed). We voted to let them re-take it, but I guess that will depend on your group. There wasn't any time to relax and practice once you get there. It's pretty much just set up, dinner, then test.

Definitely bring sunscreen and a hat for the days you are doing intake. Don't forget a towel and flip flops for the shower (a little bag to carry your stuff to the shower wouldn't hurt either. Hmm, I am trying to remember things that I was really glad to have.
I have a latex allergy so I brought my own gloves which I got on ebay.
I got my own surgery hat to avoid the headaches I get from bouffants.
I was really happy to have my own sharpie, pen, scissors, thermometer, stethoscope.
OH KNEE PADS!!! I really highly recommend bringing knee pads like you use when doing construction work because you are on your knees for the majority of the day. I had bruises despite having a pretty nifty pair and the people that didn't were not happy after the first day.
You are also sitting on the floor often so a stadium chair/stool wouldn't be a bad idea either.
I brought a down jacket which was the perfect warmth level for the mornings and evenings- though it didn't help me much at night unfortunately. I literally put all of my clothes on and stole the surgery heating pads and was still cold, but I sleep warm normally so you might not have as much trouble as I did. I also didn't have a sleeping bag so that was my main problem lol.
 
For the skills test they do pretty much exactly what they say they will: 3 inches of simple continuous, a ligation (don't remember if they specify the type?), and .... A cat tie maybe? Anyway, don't worry about exactly the same technique they demo in the videos. Just make sure you can accomplish the task in an accepted way in the time limit with crappy suture. They do test with a stopwatch. If you practice the skills test is easy. If you don't you could easily fail it. Make sure your knots are secure and proper square knots!

My groups also voted to let the peeps who failed retake it. I'd guess at least 20% of my group failed? I dunno. Maybe it wasn't quite that many.

I got a lot of sx and anesthesia time on my week-long trip. Was great.
 
Congratulations! I am jealous. I decided not to do it again this year but I miss it!
I think there were about 10 vets and 30 students. About 5 people do surgery every day, and the others are split into anesthesia, and intake. I think everyone was really nervous about the surgical skills test, but it really wasn't so bad in my opinion. the videos were really helpful. A few people failed it and the group was given the option to let them re-take it or not (meaning more surgery days for everyone who passed). We voted to let them re-take it, but I guess that will depend on your group. There wasn't any time to relax and practice once you get there. It's pretty much just set up, dinner, then test.

For the skills test they do pretty much exactly what they say they will: 3 inches of simple continuous, a ligation (don't remember if they specify the type?), and .... A cat tie maybe? Anyway, don't worry about exactly the same technique they demo in the videos. Just make sure you can accomplish the task in an accepted way in the time limit with crappy suture. They do test with a stopwatch. If you practice the skills test is easy. If you don't you could easily fail it. Make sure your knots are secure and proper square knots!

My groups also voted to let the peeps who failed retake it. I'd guess at least 20% of my group failed? I dunno. Maybe it wasn't quite that many.

I got a lot of sx and anesthesia time on my week-long trip. Was great.

Now I'm a little more nervous about the skills test - it looks really easy?, but that's quite a few people to fail! I've got a fair bit of surgical experience already and it makes me a little worried that I've picked up bad habits that are going to come and bite me. :p

I do really appreciate the comment about not doing it exactly like the video, because he's doing something somewhat complicated-looking with the cat neuter and I can accomplish the same thing much easier the way we're taught, haha.
 
Now I'm a little more nervous about the skills test - it looks really easy?, but that's quite a few people to fail! I've got a fair bit of surgical experience already and it makes me a little worried that I've picked up bad habits that are going to come and bite me. :p

I do really appreciate the comment about not doing it exactly like the video, because he's doing something somewhat complicated-looking with the cat neuter and I can accomplish the same thing much easier the way we're taught, haha.

If you have experience you should be fine. I mean, they publish the requirements so just try it - can you do it? If not, practice. They seemed less concerned with how you did it and more concerned with it being done safely/effectively, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you have bad habits, better to undo them now than fourth year or after vet school. :)

Do they require a millers or something on the ligature? Or just a simple circumferential? I've forgotten.
 
If you have experience you should be fine. I mean, they publish the requirements so just try it - can you do it? If not, practice. They seemed less concerned with how you did it and more concerned with it being done safely/effectively, so I wouldn't worry too much about it. If you have bad habits, better to undo them now than fourth year or after vet school. :)

Do they require a millers or something on the ligature? Or just a simple circumferential? I've forgotten.

I can definitely do everything on the list, just don't know if I'd know if I'm slightly screwing up something - if that makes sense. :) Probably a silly worry!

For the ligature they list that you can either do a normal surgeon's throw or a modified miller's.
 
Top