Shadowing

[BakersDozen]

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Tomorrow is the first day of shadowing for me and I want to make sure that I get the most out of it and that I don't miss anything I will need for my application to Mizzou! (or anywhere else I apply!)

Any suggestions on a notebook? I am bouncing back and forth between a spiral notebook and a composition notebook and then I think about making a form that the Dr. would sign for me so Mizzou would know I was telling the truth about my hours, cause how do they really know everyone is telling the truth??

Also, besides asking about the hours you have with Small Companion Animal, Food Animal, Equine, and Exotic animals what else do they ask you about your shadowing experience?

I just don't want to sit down three years from now with my notes and go "uh oh, I didn't write that down!"

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

 

[GellaBella]

I used a small pocket sized spiral notebook...don't bring any form for your vet to sign...no one is going to look at it later on. You will be asked to report how many hours you shadowed with the vet and if you use them as a letter of reference they are asked how long they have known you. If you say something like you shadowed 10,000 hours and the vet puts down that you've been shadowing him for 2 months...well that's not going to fly. But for the most part you're just taken at your word.

I would write down what time I came in at and what time I left, and the individual cases we saw. You won't be asked for details on your application so don't worry about not having something...this is for your own education, no one will test you on it. When you apply they will ask you what you did in that experience, since I only shadowed and was technically not allowed to do much with a patient, my description of my activities was something along the lines of

"Shadowed Dr. X, an exclusively avian and small exotics veterinarian on both surgery and outpatient visits. Occassionally assisted in minor patient restraint."

You don't have much space, so you have to keep it short and sweet.

Just grab a small notebook you can throw in a pocket, and enjoy seeing a bit of the everyday job of a veterinarian.

 

[awaring1]

From what I can tell, most of the hours are based on the honor policy. (I never saw ways for things to be checked.) However, you want to use this person as a reference and you say you have 2,000 hours with them and they claim they worked with you for two months it may raise some eyebrows.


Also, when you are filling our your application you are given a limited amount of space to describe your activities/duties (600 characters? Someone correct me if I am wrong.) They don't want you to list every single thing you did, just give a general overview.

For journaling I would suggest just writing down the things that made an impact on you. How did you feel the first time you saw _______ done? How did the particularly touching case involving _______ impact you? What did you see that changed your views of the profession for better or for worse? I think things like this will be more helpful to you when writing your personal statement and in interviews than all the nitty gritty details.

And I would personally avoid the spiral bound just because they are more likely to lose pages and sometimes fall apart.

 

[awaring1]

I used a small pocket sized spiral notebook...don't bring any form for your vet to sign...no one is going to look at it later on. You will be asked to report how many hours you shadowed with the vet and if you use them as a letter of reference they are asked how long they have known you. If you say something like you shadowed 10,000 hours and the vet puts down that you've been shadowing him for 2 months...well that's not going to fly. But for the most part you're just taken at your word.

I would write down what time I came in at and what time I left, and the individual cases we saw. You won't be asked for details on your application so don't worry about not having something...this is for your own education, no one will test you on it. When you apply they will ask you what you did in that experience, since I only shadowed and was technically not allowed to do much with a patient, my description of my activities was something along the lines of

"Shadowed Dr. X, an exclusively avian and small exotics veterinarian on both surgery and outpatient visits. Occassionally assisted in minor patient restraint."

You don't have much space, so you have to keep it short and sweet.

Just grab a small notebook you can throw in a pocket, and enjoy seeing a bit of the everyday job of a veterinarian.

hahahah. It's like you read my mind (or I read yours) 😀

 

[GellaBella]

great minds...

or we just been through the process ...

I'll go with great minds though. 😛

 

[awaring1]

great minds...

or we just been through the process ...

I'll go with great minds though. 😛

👍

 

[scb44f]

Mizzou has a separate in-state application, so the above information about space is slightly different than what you'll see on your application for Mizzou (assuming you do apply there).

Instead of separating your shadowing experiences by vet or clinic (which you can do if you actually work in a clinic I guess), they look at the total number of both veterinary and animal experience hours in those categories (dogs/cats, food animals, equine, lab animals, and other). You also list the names of the veterinarians you shadowed/worked for who handled those species. For instance, I ended up listing a lot of names for food animals, because I worked with 3 mixed-animal vets and 4 from a VIDA trip. I didn't specify what I saw at different clinics because a lot of it over-lapped, but I suppose that would be one way of listing the things you saw. I was more focused on showing the variety of procedures I'd witnessed.

I did not list veterinary experience (besides the VIDA trip) anywhere else on the application other than in this section because it was all shadowing. My interviewers double checked to make sure this was the case, but they didn't dwell on it.

Overall, it is easiest to keep track of not only the number of hours you have with each vet, but then also the hours for each category. It is much less painstaking at application time if you can just copy/paste the hours from an Excel spreadsheet. PM me if you want to see the one I made and used!

 

[BakersDozen]

Thanks guys! I was all worried about reporting my shadowing experience JUST right!

awaring1, I am so happy you told me NOT to just write the clinical side of the cases because that was exactly what I was about to do! I will definately focus on what I learn and feel and not just the clinical aspects.

I'm really hoping to go in there and impress her tomorrow and over the next few times of shadowing so she'll want to hire me on! I will clean cages if it looks good on my application!

Don't get me wrong! I love my current job but invoicing at an oil company...not gonna get me into vet school!

Speaking of...better get back to work! Thanks again!!

 

[awaring1]

Just to update my previous post (I forgot about it earlier):

You don't need to go into exact specifics, but it may not hurt to (as someone said before) keep somewhat of a brief idea of what you are doing. I say this because I did not apply to every school and some schools supplement may be different. I know that for Cornell you had to break down your duties by percentages i.e. 30% animal handling, 20% lab work, 5% inventory.... I didn't keep exact records (or any records at all) of what I did and I found it was pretty easy to remember my responsibilities. However, if you don't trust your memory you may want to keep somewhat of a record.

I still highly suggest recording what impacted you in detail. This is because a lot of schools that I applied to had questions like "Name a time you had to take charge... name a time you changed your mind on an issue..." type questions on either their supplement or their interview. I kept a running tally in my head of issues I knew I wanted to talk about, but it would have saved me a lot of brain wracking if I had written it down.

Good luck!

 

[pooter]

This is kinda off topic, but I always carried a few quarter sheets of paper (separate from my hours log) that I would whip out to write down terms/diseases/drugs that I wasn't familiar with. Then when I had a spare minute I'd look them up. It didn't really help my application, but I did feel like I was getting a quicker grasp of how the clinic worked and what we were actually doing to the patients. This was in emergency, so there wasn't always time to ask a ton of questions. Stuff is just more interesting when you get what the heck is going on.

 

[LetItSnow]

my description of my activities was something along the lines of

"Shadowed Dr. X, an exclusively avian and small exotics veterinarian on both surgery and outpatient visits. Occassionally assisted in minor patient restraint."

Obviously that worked for Gella, since I see "Veterinary Student" over there. 🙂 But FWIW that's also what I did my first year and, after not getting in, one of the criticisms made in review was that I didn't give more details about my shadowing time.

I felt like that's a bit unfair because, as Gella noted, you don't have much space. But I gritted my teeth and went into much more detail about what I saw and learned. Since you can't fit it all, I tried to focus on the things I observed that lined up with the interests I talked about in my personal statement: just one way to make your overall application a consistent, unified package.

It took some tight writing, but..... my results were better this year around.

 

[that redhead]

The only time I shadowed (as opposed to actually got a job) was with an equine vet and I was too busy holding animals, drawing up meds, trotting out lameness exams, watching the ultrasound machine, etc to take notes. I was also a sophomore in high school so I wasn't really thinking ahead that much 🙄 I think more important that writing down every little thing is really getting involved in the experience as much as you can. Make a note on a specific disease/treatment/etc and research it a bit at home and bring some questions the next day. I would recommend a notebook for when you get home: reflect on what you did that day and how many hours you spent each time.

To be honest, adcoms aren't going to ask you for your shadowing journal at your interview, and minute details aren't always necessary. I was asked at my interview why we collected blood via a wing stick instead of jugular(ly?) on the research birds I was involved with. "You would get more blood from jugular.." etc and I was geeking out a little because I -know- you get more blood from the jugular; the best I could say was something along the lines of it was the PI's choice in the end. They didn't hound the issue, either, so little things can pass 🙂

 

[Goatherdess14]

On my Mizzou app, on the part where they ask about your hours, I detailed a little. For example, for my food animal vet, I said "one of our more interesting cases was reconstructing the mammary system of a goat." For my equine, I said "One most interesting case was the care of a premature foal. For exotics, I said ".... upper respiratory infection in a boa constrictor."

I mentioned these because they really stuck out to me, I remembered a lot about them, and they were definitely interesting. I expected the interviewers to ask about at least one, and they did. They asked me to go into detail about the goat. I knew a lot of the drugs and such we used to dry her up, but I just said "she was attacked by a dog three days after freshening...." blah blah blah. Short, sweet, and to the point. It was a long case, over several months and luckily my vet kept me updated and planned appointments around my schedule so I could stay involved.

Write down things that stick out to you... you have some room on MU's app, so use it!

 

[BakersDozen]

Redhead, that is one thing I worry about but I also know I have the worst memory and have three years at least! I may wait until after each assessment though! I definitely want to soak up as much as I can. I think what I may end up doing is a time sheet but also kind of writing out what happened each day. Hey, maybe I'll start a book! The Road to Vet School by BakersDozen!

 

[BakersDozen]

redhead,

what kind of dog is that in your avatar? we rescued a really old girl from the pound and she looks alot like that, well, LOOKED like that before we had to shave her down.

 

[BakersDozen]

On my Mizzou app, on the part where they ask about your hours, I detailed a little. For example, for my food animal vet, I said "one of our more interesting cases was reconstructing the mammary system of a goat." For my equine, I said "One most interesting case was the care of a premature foal. For exotics, I said ".... upper respiratory infection in a boa constrictor."

I mentioned these because they really stuck out to me, I remembered a lot about them, and they were definitely interesting. I expected the interviewers to ask about at least one, and they did. They asked me to go into detail about the goat. I knew a lot of the drugs and such we used to dry her up, but I just said "she was attacked by a dog three days after freshening...." blah blah blah. Short, sweet, and to the point. It was a long case, over several months and luckily my vet kept me updated and planned appointments around my schedule so I could stay involved.

Write down things that stick out to you... you have some room on MU's app, so use it!

I wish I had that kind of diversity around here. We have small pets and horses, the end. I don't know if there are even cows! I guess I will have to find that out!

Good to know there is some room on MU's app because I'm not really good at short and sweet so it's gonna take some work!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! These are really good and giving me some really good ideas! Keep 'em coming! 😉

 

[Goatherdess14]

I wish I had that kind of diversity around here. We have small pets and horses, the end. I don't know if there are even cows! I guess I will have to find that out!

Good to know there is some room on MU's app because I'm not really good at short and sweet so it's gonna take some work!

Thanks for all the suggestions guys! These are really good and giving me some really good ideas! Keep 'em coming! 😉

The thing to remember is to be concise yet informative... use the least amount of room to tell the most important information as possible. You don't want to be wordy or end up using all the space for something that isn't so important. I had tons of people that knew me very well go over and over my app, then several people who were just good acquaintances read it as well. Concise is better than wordy.

 

[EllieGirl89]

I always carried a spiral notebook with me but not when I was actually physically shadowing the vet or helping with something. When I was shadowing the large animal vet I left it in the truck and then wrote down what we did on that call on the way to the next one. When I was shadowing the small animal vet I left it in the break room and wrote down notes between appointments/procedures.

At the beginning of the day I wrote the date, the time I started and ended, and what doctor I was shadowing that day. I jotted down what I saw, what I did, and any other thoughts or feelings that came to mind. I would really suggest this and writing down anything especially poignant, because in some supplemental applications and in a lot of your interviews you'll be asked questions for which you have to come up with a particular scenario. If you have an idea of these types of questions ahead of time, you can go through your notebook later and find experiences you had that are good examples for you to DEMONSTRATE your good qualities and not just TELL about them. This is also extremely helpful in your personal statement.

 

[twelvetigers]

redhead,

what kind of dog is that in your avatar? we rescued a really old girl from the pound and she looks alot like that, well, LOOKED like that before we had to shave her down.

I always assumed that 'That Redhead' was the dog, and not her. 🙂

Is it a golden, or an Irish setter?

 

[BakersDozen]

So I saw several dogs, cats, and horses at the clinic today. After the clinic closed we went to a trail ride operation for vaccinations. It was really fun!

 

[jmo1012]

This is kinda off topic, but I always carried a few quarter sheets of paper (separate from my hours log) that I would whip out to write down terms/diseases/drugs that I wasn't familiar with. Then when I had a spare minute I'd look them up. It didn't really help my application, but I did feel like I was getting a quicker grasp of how the clinic worked and what we were actually doing to the patients. This was in emergency, so there wasn't always time to ask a ton of questions. Stuff is just more interesting when you get what the heck is going on.

Thats how i treat my notebook! depending on where you are, they might have a textbook library-great place to learn terms or even basic diagnostic stuff if youre confused!

record your hours, but record what you learn or things to learn. maybe not helpful for an application, but eventually its going to be you doing that stuff and using those terms so you might as well start somewhere!