Internship vs Mentorship

[trynitylynn]

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Hi everyone,

I am three weeks into my clinical year and currently experiencing some professional uncertainty. I’d love to get some perspective from those who have already navigated this transition.

Before vet school, I spent five years working as a surgery assistant in 2 different ER and Specialty hospitals. I entered school with the goal of pursuing a small animal surgery residency, but after gaining more experience in GP during my summers and going through vet school in general, my goals have shifted. I’ve realized that I prefer the lifestyle and scope of a GP career and doing CE to be more confident in surgery at the GP level. I also would like to establish a better work-life balance after a long academic journey that included a master's degree between undergrad and vet school.

I am debating whether it is worth applying for a traditional internship or if I should prioritize joining a practice with a structured mentorship program. I’m currently a student rep for Mission Pet Health and have been impressed by the structure of their new graduate mentorship program. However, my current clinical rotation mentors strongly recommend an internship, suggesting that one year in an internship is equivalent to three years of experience in GP.

For those who have been through this, how did you choose your path after graduation? Was an internship essential for your long-term confidence in GP, or did you find that a strong mentorship program provided the support you needed? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[supershorty]

Caveat: I am not a GP.

I don't think an internship is worth doing if you want to do GP. You see a ton of cases as an intern, but the vast majority of them are not the kind of stuff you'll be seeing day in and day out as a general practitioner and for the financial hit you take as an intern vs an associate, if you have no desire to specialize, I don't think it's worth doing.

 

[WildZoo]

Unfortunately there is no one out there who has the experience of doing both things as a new grad, so it is always going to be a somewhat difficult question to answer. But I do think academic clinicians who push GP-bound students to do traditional internships when they themselves have never worked in GP are doing those students a huge disservice.

I would believe an internship is the equivalent of (note I did not say "worth") three years of GP in terms of overall workload - you're seeing all the sick things and none of the wellness things, you're often working ridiculous hours. That has benefits specifically for people who are trying to get through a course of intense training and not be making intern and resident salaries forever. It also has significant downsides for your work life balance, mental health, bank account...

But an internship will not give you the equivalent experience of someone who has worked for three years in GP. It is a completely different environment, with a different set of challenges. There are things that would be the bread and butter of GP that you will do very little if any of in a traditional rotating internship (wellness appointments as mentioned, a LOT of derm, managing chronic conditions over months to years, even surgery since most internships don't have the interns cutting, etc). And if your goal is GP, there is no reason to shove three years into one anyway, if that makes sense. You will already have the job you want, you'll just be working at getting better and more comfortable at it, which is a lifelong learning experience. There is no rush, and there is no reason to put yourself through a meat grinder for a year and get paid poorly for it too.

 

[SkiOtter]

I went straight into GP after graduating and feel like that was the best path for me. I got the assistance and mentorship that I needed and still got to go home at a reasonable hour each night and just relax. I personally would never have done an internship because GP was always my goal.

 

[SkiOtter]

There are also multiple GPs who do the weird surgeries around me and we refer to them for those things. TPLOs, PUs on cats, BOAS, anal sacculectomy, TECABO. You can absolutely be in GP and do advanced surgery and still maintain the GP lifestyle and not go through an internship. If you happen to be wanting to move to West Michigan, I know one of the GP hospitals that does all these things and we refer there is hiring for an associate 😂 cascade hospital for animals if you’re interested.

 

[pp9]

suggesting that one year in an internship is equivalent to three years of experience in GP.

WZ beat me to it - I'm honestly not sure how this line of thinking came to be.

 

[katiemcat]

I would believe an internship is the equivalent of (note I did not say "worth") three years of GP in terms of overall workload - you're seeing all the sick things and none of the wellness things, you're often working ridiculous hours. That has benefits specifically for people who are trying to get through a course of intense training and not be making intern and resident salaries forever. It also has significant downsides for your work life balance, mental health, bank account...

haha ya….

-someone who quit their rotating a month in

 

[JaynaAli]

WZ beat me to it - I'm honestly not sure how this line of thinking came to be.

I think way, way back in the day even before I went through the specialty pipeline, a lot of training programs had requirements for either an internship or three years of practice experience…and then along the way people just started so say they were equivalent. But now there are so many internship programs and the training pipeline is so different.

 

[battie]

I'm a GP -> ER -> GP person over the span of 5 years. Now that I'm back in GP I am confident an internship would have been a waste of time and money (that you aren't making).

I was supposed to be in one of those corporate "mentorship" programs at my very first job. It was not good. The mentorship program depends mostly on the mentor and the mentee rather than the framework around it. So keep that in mind. I have been in corporate med since graduation until about 6 weeks ago. There is a lot of shenanigans going on in corporate medicine behind the scene that varies from corporate to corporate and clinic to clinic within each corporate.

Overall, when you're looking for a job, 1) visit the location, 2) get a sense of what the actual day to day is like (15 minutes for an appt. vs 30 minutes, costs compared to the local population income, schedule, etc.), 3) and the quality of life for your staff.

 

[trynitylynn]

Thank you all so much for your replies! They have been very helpful and I appreciate all of the different perspectives!