Human Hospital Experience

[eventrider]

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So for a while back in high school I was undecided on the whole Pre-Med/Pre-Vet debate, and I did a 12 week internship for 3 hours a week at the local (human) hospital. I shadowed docs in the OR, ER, and PT department, and got a lot of experience working in the pharmacy and working with anesthesiologists. It was actually really cool. I got to prepare the drugs they'd take to the patients, help take personal histories and scribe for the ER docs, and I even got to bag (pretty much breathe) for a guy anesthetized during surgery.

Although I was working with people, I learned a lot of skills that I feel will help me when working in veterinary situations. So now to my question: is this experience something vet schools will actually look at and take into account, as I was working in a healthcare setting, or is it something I shouldn't even bother mentioning? Also, if I should mention it, where would be the best place to do that? (I'm only a freshman so I haven't looked at the VMCAS yet)

Thanks! 🙂

 

[BlacKAT33]

Id put it under employment history and if you weren't paid for it just make sure you write it down in the description box.

edit: i should clarify how i came to this decision. I'm not sure if you've heard but if your work is supervised by someone with a PhD (or professional degree) you can count it as vet experience. The only thing is, on the vmcas chart the other requirement for something to count as vet experience is that it involves work with animals. If you answer "no" to work with animals, its automatically put into work experience

 

[eventrider]

Thanks! 😀

 

[sumstorm]

I did several hospital stints, worked as a CNA, and at an urgent care clinic. I put it under work history, and emphasized the skills that would be beneficial as a vet (explaining medical information, taking histories, records, etc.)

 

[moosenanny]

Just make sure that when interviews roll around, you can clearly explain why you chose vet med over human med. I volunteered at a human hospital for two years throughout high school, and since then have accumulated 1000's of hours with animals and none further with human medicine, and UC Davis still asked me in my interview if I ever considered human medicine, and why or why not . . .

 

[almostglue]

I agree with what everyone's said. Definitely list it in your application, but be prepared to explain why you chose vet over human. I, too, had a significant amount of human medicine experience and I do think it helped me get into vet school (the basics of medicine are the same!), but it only helps if you're clear about wanting to do vet and not human and why you ended up making that decision.