Small Animal Medicine Surgery Internship

[justified]

I am looking into completing a SA internship following my final year of my DVM degree. I was wondering if anyone had any program recommendations for completing this. By the sounds of it, AMC in NYC has a great program but I have heard it can be very challenging and I would guess it is difficult to get a position. I was also curious about opinions on private practice internships vs. academic institutes?
Thanks

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[Bill59]

Why do you want to do an internship?

Different programs have different strengths and weaknesses. Specific recommendations depend on what you want from an internship.

 

[justified]

I eventually want to do a residency. I am leaning towards opthamology or surgery. I figure a rotating medicine and surgery internship would be the next best step and I would also like to get a bit more experience in other areas before I decide on anything too specific.

 

[Bill59]

In that case, most any of the North American schools would be fine, as well as the well-known private internships like AMC or Angell. You have to me more careful with some of the smaller or newer private internships. Some are great and some are not. And they may not carry as much prestige when applying for residencies.

If you’re considering ophtho, make sure they have a full time ophthalmology service with boarded ophthalmologists and the interns spend time there. You’ll want to have reference letters from 1-2 ophthalmologists. This information will be available on the match site – they start entering programs tomorrow and the deadline is Oct. 1. The same applies for surgery, but most internships have surgeons.

Another consideration is emergency call. All internships have some call but at some places, this is the major focus of the internship. If you like emergency medicine/critical care, those are great. But if that’s not an interest for you, that sort of place won’t be a good fit. Remember, time spent seeing emergencies is time NOT spent doing other things – like ophthalmology for example.

Another factor is amount of oversight. At some places, the hospital is run mostly by house officers. At others, the attending specialists are actually on the floor. So it depends on what you like – a lot of oversight or a lot of freedom to learn on your own.

Most everything else is relatively minor, like preference for geographic regions. If you have a 4.1 GPA and reference letters from the president, Bill Gates and Jesus you can pick stuff like that. Otherwise you usually figure you can live anywhere for a year as long as you match.

One final tip – if you apply for an ophthalmology residency, make sure you spell it correctly 🙂 eye guys are kinda picky about that.

 

[justified]

Thanks Bill
For many residencies, the qualifications state, "internship or equivalent experience". Do you happen to know what is considered equivalent.... a few years in general practice? Most clinicians I talk to say an internship is the better option and in some cases I may have to do a second internship in more specific areas (eg. ophthamology) before being accpeted into a residency.

 

[Bill59]

That's a difficult question because at most places there is no specific formula; for example 1yr. internship = 3 yr. private practice, or whatever.

In general though, ophtho and surgery are two of the most competitive small animal internships to get. At most places, the chance of getting either without having an internship is remote. In fact, many applicants now have a rotating internship and a specialty internship, as you indicated. Or they have several years of private practice and an internship.

It's all a matter of being competitive compared to the other applicants.