Job Shadowing!!! Woo!

[Ploofafa]

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Finally! (I am so excited!) 😀

Anyway, I wanted to come to the friendly members of SDN for some assistance in several regards. -- I believe it would be in my best interest to have a list of questions that regarding the field, correct? Which would lead me to question number two, being what do you think the most pertinent questions to ask would be? -- It's sort of been my dream to be a Zoo Vet. (as misguided or ignorant as I may be at this point), but I have every intention of picking this Vet's brain as much as I can, while at the same time trying not to be annoying. 🙂

So, for all those whom might be reading this, what advice might you offer to a Job Shadower / first timer seeing the behind-the-scenes?

 

[GellaBella]

first of all congratulations on landing a vet shadowing opportunity.

Is this a one time deal or are you planning on shadowing this vet repeatedly?

When I shadow my veterinarian I mostly try to stay out of the way of people involved in actually assisting the vet. However I also try to see what he is doing and if it is not a chaotic moment I guage whether he is open to having questions asked of him.

Most of my questions involve diagnosis: what made him think one diagnosis rather than another one. Or if we are looking at an x-ray I ask him to describe what he is seeing. Once a diagnosis is made I ask him about the treatment plan.

Other times its about what I see in during the physical exam...what is he looking for when he looks in a birds mouth etc. Usually once I've asked him a question like this, the next time we see a bird he'll purposefully take a look and then show me so that I can actually see what he is talking about.

I think you should just go in and see what a day in the life of a veterinarian is like. As you think of questions either write them down to talk to them later or try to remember the things you're interested in . 👍

 

[Ploofafa]

I believe repeatedly (or so I should like to think so 😛).

Thanks for the reassurance and congratulations. I was sort of thinking it would be better to stay out of "the line of duty." I just hope my questions sound a little elementary / silly, given that I am still a Senior [in High School]. 🙂

 

[twelvetigers]

We all started somewhere. 🙂

 

[clairbear]

The first time I shadowed I had to write a report for school, so I asked a lot of general questions that were predetermined like what is your favorite animal to treat and why, what was your most interesting case, do you wish you had done anything differently with your career, what are the pros and cons of your job, etc. They were definately pretty general at first.

After that, when I started coming in more regularly, I started asking questions about patients and their diagnosis like why do you do this, how can you tell this animal has this, and what does this mean. Techs are also a great source of information and sometimes you can get them to show you how to do things when the vet doesn't have time. If you do start going in regularly, they might be happy that you can help them out a bit.

Just try not to get in the way like GellaBella said.