Questions on Experience Hours

[shred4life]

Is it better to work or volunteer to achieve experience hours? I thought it was always better to volunteer, but it seems as though many of you have worked in various veterinary institutions. Do vet schools consider work or volunteering in higher regards or are they both weighted equally?

I am hoping to become a small animal vet in private practice. Is it better to vary my vet experience hours? (equine, large animal, research) or focus my attention on what I want to do ? (small animal) Do schools like to see varied experience of dedication and concentration in just one field?

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[Minnerbelle]

Is it better to work or volunteer to achieve experience hours? I thought it was always better to volunteer, but it seems as though many of you have worked in various veterinary institutions. Do vet schools consider work or volunteering in higher regards or are they both weighted equally?

I am hoping to become a small animal vet in private practice. Is it better to vary my vet experience hours? (equine, large animal, research) or focus my attention on what I want to do ? (small animal) Do schools like to see varied experience of dedication and concentration in just one field?

Of course the quality of your experience is all in your job description, but I think generally it's better to work rather than volunteer because you tend to have more responsibilities and experience through working, esp in a private clinic.

to be honest though, i don't think it really matters. I mean anywhere you go (volunteering or paid work) treating/surgery prep/blood draws/etc... always trumps cleaning kennels and watching... but vet experience is vet experience. not everyone gets lucky finding a super hands on experience and vet schools know that. what's important is that you have enough experience to know what being a vet is all about.

 

[scb44f]

Is it better to work or volunteer to achieve experience hours? I thought it was always better to volunteer, but it seems as though many of you have worked in various veterinary institutions. Do vet schools consider work or volunteering in higher regards or are they both weighted equally?

I am hoping to become a small animal vet in private practice. Is it better to vary my vet experience hours? (equine, large animal, research) or focus my attention on what I want to do ? (small animal) Do schools like to see varied experience of dedication and concentration in just one field?

As far as volunteering vs. being paid, definitely take what you can get. Many vets may not be hiring, but are still willing to allow people to shadow or volunteer. All of my experience is shadowing and volunteering, granted I just started this summer.

You will want to go for breadth as well as depth. Having experience in small animal, as well as large animal and research is going to be most helpful to you in the end. Schools want to see that you have an idea of what vets do in all of those fields. If you go in saying you want to do small animal, but have no other experiences, they are going to question how you know that's what you want to do since you haven't tried anything else.

By depth, I mean you're going to want at least a few hundred hours in each area. I'm not saying you NEED that many hours, but it's the optimal situation for you. I myself have only 30 hours and will be applying next year. Let me tell you I'm going to work my butt off until then to gain the experience.

 

[eventualeventer]

Varied experience is better. You want to show that you know that there is more to being a vet than just treating dogs and cats. You will be learning about all different species during vet school, and there is plenty of time to specialize later.

As for volunteer vs. working, I don't really know if there's a big difference, but you can usually get a lot more hours by working and a lot of places won't let you do very much if you are a volunteer (and not covered by liability insurance).

ETA: Holy cow, the boards are hopping tonight!

 

[BlacKAT33]

ive talked with admissions people and they say it does not matter at all if you volunteer or get paid. the quality of your experience matters so if you volunteer for a vet that lets you observe or assist the same things the vet techs do then thats great for you. if you want to do small animal for sure then you might as well get a job, but remember you can gain jobs through volunteering also

 

[scb44f]

Varied experience is better. You want to show that you know that there is more to being a vet than just treating dogs and cats. You will be learning about all different species during vet school, and there is plenty of time to specialize later.

As for volunteer vs. working, I don't really know if there's a big difference, but you can usually get a lot more hours by working and a lot of places won't let you do very much if you are a volunteer (and not covered by liability insurance).

ETA: Holy cow, the boards are hopping tonight!

Oh yeah, I should mention that shadowing/volunteering may be different from clinic to clinic. In the vet's office I'm at now, I can handle animals, prep the surgery room with the vet techs, and do just about anything else that isn't administering fluids/shots/medicine or running tests or preparing samples.

 

[Minnerbelle]

Oh yeah, I should mention that shadowing/volunteering may be different from clinic to clinic. In the vet's office I'm at now, I can handle animals, prep the surgery room with the vet techs, and do just about anything else that isn't administering fluids/shots/medicine or running tests or preparing samples.

but that's the thing. you're not allowed to administer fluids/shots/medicine/etc... those are things you would be allowed to do if you were working (or volunteering at some shelters ). by surgery prep, i didn't mean prep the room... i meant more prepping the animals (inducing anesthesia, intubating, etc...)

though again, if you can get hands on experience, then kudos. but it's not required, and these are all things you can learn once in vet school too so no worries at all if you get the experience now. like others have said, concentrating on getting a varied but in-depth exposure to vet med is a lot more important

 

[scb44f]

but that's the thing. you're not allowed to administer fluids/shots/medicine/etc... those are things you would be allowed to do if you were working (or volunteering at some shelters ). by surgery prep, i didn't mean prep the room... i meant more prepping the animals (inducing anesthesia, intubating, etc...)

though again, if you can get hands on experience, then kudos. but it's not required, and these are all things you can learn once in vet school too so no worries at all if you get the experience now. like others have said, concentrating on getting a varied but in-depth exposure to vet med is a lot more important

Yeah, I didn't mean to say you should be allowed, sorry if I made it sound that way! I just know some places will only let you observe, so don't expect to get to do everything. (Though a combination of observing and hands-on is nice ).

As far as animals during surgery, I've turned the anesthesia nozzles down, and held stuff in place for the Dr., I just wasn't thinking about all the stuff I have done when I was writing before. My mind is in chemical engineering mode right now...

 

[deleted266066]

Yeah my shadowing never involved any hands on stuff passed restraining an animal if the other techs were too busy, or helping lift a dog off of the surgical table, etc. They were legally not allowed to let me do any of the *actual* hands on things, which is lame but more than understandable.

One of the techs let me practice drawing blood on a dog that was still under anesthetic since they needed to collect a sample anyway, but only after the vet had left the room. Shhh. Haha... no cops better come knocking on my door now!