prioritizing research vs clinical experience

[medo1]

I have one summer left to do something, since third year summer we start working in the hospital. I still have had minimal clinical experience thus far. Ive had a lot of more research experience before vet school and even within vet school. The one organization i volunteer for in vet school, I took a lab position, probably stupidly lol. Therefore, I dont practice blood draws or anything. I was supposed to be a co-author on a research paper from before vet school but the prof retired and it looks like publishing wont happen unfortunately. Anyways, if I can do both over summer I'll try, but I really dont think I would have the time. If I have to choose what do you recommend choosing? I dont want to be a bad surgery partner nor be ill-prepared for fourth year. Honestly I wish I could take a gap year in the middle of vet school to do both lol. During my gap year between undergrad and vet school, I volunteered in a vet practice, but it was one veterinarian and he did everything so I didnt get practice for anything other than restraining . Im not super gung-ho on specializing, I enjoy everything so I think GP would probably be the best fit for me. Though I am considering shelter med and would like to keep that door open (need research then). I will likely do an internship for the mentorship and more clinical experience too.

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[LyraGardenia]

If you want to do GP or shelter med, I think getting some clinical experience in your remaining summer would be a good idea. However I wouldn't stress too much about trying to prepare yourself for junior surgery/fourth year, more hands-on experience is always good, but your school should teach you what you need to know to succeed in surgeries and clinics. Also at least in my experience our clinicians were pretty picky about how they wanted us to place catheters, suture, etc. in junior surgery lab, so even if you've done those things out in practice you may have to re-learn it to an extent. But that being said, more GP exposure would be good to see if it's what you truly want to do (caveat: I have pretty much zero research experience myself, and I don't know how much research is required for specializing in shelter med).

I'll also add that I've heard if you don't plan on doing a residency, doing an internship probably isn't worth the year of working your tail off for less than minimum wage. If you find the right job you can still get good mentorship in GP. Others may have different opinions, but the only vets I've heard encourage doing an internship before GP were promoting their own internship program.

 

[SkiOtter]

I'll also add that I've heard if you don't plan on doing a residency, doing an internship probably isn't worth the year of working your tail off for less than minimum wage. If you find the right job you can still get good mentorship in GP. Others may have different opinions, but the only vets I've heard encourage doing an internship before GP were promoting their own internship program.

Yep I’ve heard the same. They said if you were at all on the fence about doing a residency at some point to do one, but if you didn’t want to specialize to just go straight into GP and find a place that would give you good mentorship and make real money vs intern salary.

 

[Cobyology]

I definitely think it varies based on what you want to do. I have been working as a tech in an emergency and specialty center since Summer of 2015, but I have zero research experience. All of the doctors that I work with tell me that I will be amazingly prepared and miles ahead of my classmates when I start vet school. I am comfortable with the technical skills required, but I also plan on practicing emergency medicine.

Basically, if you want to do clinical practice, I would recommend getting experience in a clinic. If you want to do research, then get more experience in that. If you are unsure, I would say clinical experience because you already have experience in a lab, even if it was minimal.

 

[Cobyology]

).

I'll also add that I've heard if you don't plan on doing a residency, doing an internship probably isn't worth the year of working your tail off for less than minimum wage. If you find the right job you can still get good mentorship in GP. Others may have different opinions, but the only vets I've heard encourage doing an internship before GP were promoting their own internship program.

If you're doing GP, I'd agree that an internship is probably pointless. Personally, I plan on coming back to the ER/specialty center I work at now to do an internship, but that's just because ER/specialty is so complex.

 

[SocialStigma]

If there's a possibility you might want to specialize and pursue a residency, do research. If you want to go the GP route, get clinical experience.

 

[that redhead]

If you’re planning GP, I’d go for the clinical experience. However, you’ll learn plenty in fourth year and don’t need to get that experience now if you enjoy research more.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Honestly, I would just go with whichever is going to give you the best quality opportunity, not necessarily what category it fits in. The job that will allow you to invest 120% of yourself into so that you can grow from it. It won't be all that helpful for you no matter what you do, if it's a dud position.

If you want to do something that has a bit of both clinical and research elements, you may want to consider finding something to do through the comparative medicine department of a large research institute that works with higher animal models. Not sure what's available for vet students who aren't on rotations yet, but I did two lab animal rotations as a 4th year, and they were some of the most hands on experiences I had, and also very academically stimulating as well. I'm not sure I'll ever be drawing blood from monkeys again, but I probably did more monkey blood draws in 2 weeks than I did in most of clinics with dogs/cats...