The best part is ...

[HeartSong]

Oh boy, what a first day of clinics we had! What could be better on everyone's first day of rotations than for the building to get struck by lightning setting off the fire alarm so we all get to stand in the rain and hail?! All the clients had to exit too and I'm not sure if they were allowed to get into their cars. But I know at least one stayed with us and his poor little long haired dachshund was soaked. We were allowed into our cars if we were parked in the parking lot we were evacuated to but most people didn't have keys with them.

I was lucky that I was on a rotation where I was allowed to change into scrubs. A lot of people had to work the rest of the day soaked. By the time we got back in, our sedated cat was way past planned exam start time so we got a real quick exam done before it regained its ability to kill us. Now, each day, I can look back and say, "at least today isn't as bad as ..."

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[twelvetigers]

I heard about that!! Lightning, huh? That's crazy.

Well, about a year and a half ago, someone put a rice sock in the microwave and accidentally did 10:00 instead of 1:00 or something... it caught on fire and melted the wall behind it. Not only was that a rather long evacuation (which involved rolling out all of the surgery patients not already under the knife and everything) but it also made the building smell like burning popcorn for weeks.

So, never do that!

Hope your 2nd day was better.

 

[flyhi]

Hey Twelve.....What in the world is a 'rice sock'? Sounds like some crazy prank i know it doesn't really fit, but i just HAD to use that guy

 

[Trilt]

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Rice-Sock

They're nice and warm. I have one I use at night, though mine has flax seeds.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

Haha you've already set the bar too high! My first day can't be nearly as exciting

 

[almostglue]

Our first day of clinics was a snow day. In GEORGIA of all places. Our whole class was freaking out trying to figure out if we needed to show up or not. (And it wasn't like 1 inch of snow which normally shuts down the state - I had 7.5 inches in my backyard by the morning).

At least it's something you'll never forget!

 

[twelvetigers]

Yeah, like trilt's link. We use them to keep critters warm during and directly after surgery. They work great, you just can't cook 'em for 10 minutes.

 

[HeartSong]

What's with this weather? That's a crazy amount of snow for ANY place ANY time (well, that might be a bit of an overstatement). But really? Georgia?April? I'd be freaking out about how to get to school. Did you guys have to go in?

It's been cold here lately. It's really annoying to have it so warm one week and so cold the next.

I don't think students are allowed to put rice socks in the microwaves anymore, though I'm sure we still do occasionally. But in Junior Surgery last year a tech put one in to long and it stunk way before 10 minutes. I'm surprised they evacuated the patients though. We were told to exit immediately, don't worry about any animals. Apparently if the fire marshal comes and there's still people in the building there's a big fine.

 

[almostglue]

It was actually March 1st-2nd. The last big snow I remember in Georgia was also in March, but it was 1993 and it was a blizzard. Crazy, though. Usually Georgia just ices over. Luckily we did not have to go in! There were so many stupid drivers on the roads because no one here knows how to drive in snow. I didn't have power for about 16 hours. It was awesome.

 

[WhtsThFrequency]

I will be at Purdue my first block in a week or so. I will miss my mountains Anyone go there, want to hang out with a path nerd?

 

[Poochlover11]

What exactly are clinics like? Isn't that in your fourth year? I don't know a whole lot about it, but I thought I heard that in your fourth year you are technically a practicing vet. Do you get to diagnose and treat patients-is that what clinics are? I bet that would be both very exciting and scary at the same time!

 

[almostglue]

At Georgia, at least, clinics are great. It's a chance for you to play doctor while still having back-up so you don't completely screw up. For example, the students take in the patients and come up with a diagnostic plan and try and interpret any data, and the whole time you have an intern/resident/clinician helping guide you in the right direction. It can be what you make of it - the more you know and the harder you work the more you get out of it and the more the doctors are likely to let you participate in procedural things.

 

[lenmaca]

It was actually March 1st-2nd. The last big snow I remember in Georgia was also in March, but it was 1993 and it was a blizzard. Crazy, though. Usually Georgia just ices over. Luckily we did not have to go in! There were so many stupid drivers on the roads because no one here knows how to drive in snow. I didn't have power for about 16 hours. It was awesome.

Hehe... it was definitely fun times. Our power was out for a long time too, and I live in a gated apartment complex, so you were either locked out, or you weren't leaving to go anywhere- not that anyone really could with a half foot of snow on the ground.
I remember that blizzard of 1993, too. That was the last time I had built a snowman, until this past March!

 

[Poochlover11]

At Georgia, at least, clinics are great. It's a chance for you to play doctor while still having back-up so you don't completely screw up. For example, the students take in the patients and come up with a diagnostic plan and try and interpret any data, and the whole time you have an intern/resident/clinician helping guide you in the right direction. It can be what you make of it - the more you know and the harder you work the more you get out of it and the more the doctors are likely to let you participate in procedural things.

Are you taking classes at this time or no?

 

[HeartSong]

It really does depend on your personality and how well prepared you are. I have a pretty bad attitude. I don't have much confidence in myself and I'm incredibly lazy so I know this is going to be a really tough year for me. At OkState, we are just on clinics during our 4th year with no classes at the same time.

The length of day depends on your rotation and what cases come in. I've already had an 11 hour day and a 12 hour day with 15 minute lunch break. Others have had it harder. I know one student on their first day was in at 8 am and didn't get to leave until 6:30 am the next day but had to be back by 8am.

Since veterinary teaching hospitals are referral clinics, you'll see a lot of advanced cases worked up that you'd never seen in a general practice especially if you are on a specialty rotation like cardiology, ophthalmology or something like that. It's cool but can be stressful since a large majority of cases are more critical than you'd see in general practice.

The amount you get to do will depend on the rotation as well. Here, we get to do a lot more hands on stuff in food animal than in small animal. With small animal, a typical case is you greet the client and bring them into an exam room. You take a history and do a physical exam. You look over the information you gathered and decide what your differentials are, what tests you want to run and then present everything to a clinician. They will then ask you questions, figure out what you missed or forgot to ask, then they will go in to see the client and patient with you. Radiographs we pretty much do on our own. Bloodwork is run by the inhouse lab. Other tests like EKGs and ultrasounds we watch and help hold the animal.

Most rotations have rounds where you'll talk about the case you are working on. The clinician will ask a bunch of hard questions about the problem/ disease to see how much you know. We also have to take final exams in most of our rotations and some rotations have you do a presentation instead or in addition to the exam. And free time is spent studying for boards or posting on SDN.

 

[twelvetigers]

Bloodwork is run by the inhouse lab.

Which is an Antech - how odd is that? There's a contract in place. It doesn't always work so great - there's a bit of bickering about things. But, there's a new chem machine there now so a lot more things can be done in-house.

I'll be around there at least one day a week during this summer! So make sure you come and see me if you have a rotation that involves labwork.

 

[almostglue]

Are you taking classes at this time or no?

No. You do have rounds, though. Which can be like a mini-lecture. For example, on internal med we have case rounds some days (where each person discusses their case) and topic rounds other days (eg a quick lecture on a disease or whatever). But it's definitely not class as in there's no exams. Also, at UGA rotations are graded on a pass/fail basis whereas other schools actually give you a letter grade for your rotation. But basically, act professional, pretend like you know something, pay attention/participate in rounds, and take good care of your patients and you're good.

 

[Poochlover11]

No. You do have rounds, though. Which can be like a mini-lecture. For example, on internal med we have case rounds some days (where each person discusses their case) and topic rounds other days (eg a quick lecture on a disease or whatever). But it's definitely not class as in there's no exams. Also, at UGA rotations are graded on a pass/fail basis whereas other schools actually give you a letter grade for your rotation. But basically, act professional, pretend like you know something, pay attention/participate in rounds, and take good care of your patients and you're good.

Thank you for the info.

 

[HeartSong]

Well, I was wrong. The first day wasn't the best part, it keeps getting better and better (and by that I mean harder and more stressful.) I know I'm fully to blame at this point. I'm so unprepared. But I'm already serious thinking about giving it all up at this point. I don't know what would ever make all this worth it. I can't handle emergencies ... I just can't.

 

[Emio]

what happened??

 

[HeartSong]

I'm on my first rotation ... cardiology. It's an elective and I never should have taken it. Also, I didn't know that it was my first rotation until the Saturday before hand.

Anyway, today a simple blood pressure/ echo recheck cat ended up in the oxygen cage in ICU and never got to the echo recheck (didn't die or anything, just was too stressed. It went home at the end of the day). It also has asthma and gets so stressed at the clinic that it went into some pretty bad respiratory distress. As I was starting to get that one settled, a Basset comes in with heartworms. He's already had a complete 2 stage treatment but the last dose was only given a week or so ago. He was in the emergency clinic on Saturday and they wanted to keep him longer but the owners wanted to take him home so they did. Then this morning he had severe dyspnea and was taken to the regular vet who gave too much Dex and now the dog is with us. I don't know anything about the details of heartworm complications or the treatments of the complications so I spent about 45 minutes answering questions with the infamous "I honestly don't have a clue" and feeling like an idiot all day long. 12 hour day with no lunch, I ate some peanut butter crackers while typing up paperwork. Why would anyone choose to do that for a living?

 

[Emio]

but... nobody died, right? i mean, sounds like the cat TRIED to kill itself instead of going through echo, but ta-da! you saved it!

from your first post i thought you ended up in the fetal position in an O2 cage yourself. don't the clinician's expect a lot of "i don't know"s on the first rotation? i hope it gets better for you soon.

 

[HeartSong]

but... nobody died, right? i mean, sounds like the cat TRIED to kill itself instead of going through echo, but ta-da! you saved it!

Yeah, the clinician saved it, not me. I was more like "respiratory distress? What respiratory distress?"

from your first post i thought you ended up in the fetal position in an O2 cage yourself. don't the clinician's expect a lot of "i don't know"s on the first rotation? i hope it gets better for you soon.

Not to the degree I give them. And especially not this clinician. I was stupid for taking this elective but it's too late to do anything about it now. I heard several weeks ago that a lot of people dropped this rotation but I didn't and I should have. IF I can get through this rotation, I think I'll be okay. But if I have another rotation like this one or fail it, then I seriously don't know if it's worth continuing. At my mid-rotation evaluation today, I did not have a passing grade.

 

[Poochlover11]

Yeah, the clinician saved it, not me. I was more like "respiratory distress? What respiratory distress?"



Not to the degree I give them. And especially not this clinician. I was stupid for taking this elective but it's too late to do anything about it now. I heard several weeks ago that a lot of people dropped this rotation but I didn't and I should have. IF I can get through this rotation, I think I'll be okay. But if I have another rotation like this one or fail it, then I seriously don't know if it's worth continuing. At my mid-rotation evaluation today, I did not have a passing grade.

Man, this sounds rough. I hope things improve for you .

 

[Caninerepro]

Yeah, the clinician saved it, not me. I was more like "respiratory distress? What respiratory distress?"



Not to the degree I give them. And especially not this clinician. I was stupid for taking this elective but it's too late to do anything about it now. I heard several weeks ago that a lot of people dropped this rotation but I didn't and I should have. IF I can get through this rotation, I think I'll be okay. But if I have another rotation like this one or fail it, then I seriously don't know if it's worth continuing. At my mid-rotation evaluation today, I did not have a passing grade.

Hang in there Heartsong! Remember, this is what - two weeks of your life? I cannot pretend to know what you are going through but what would all of us 13'ers do without our big sister! Boy you make fourth year sound so exciting and fun filled! To think, we are all going to be paying HOW MUCH for the great privilege of being subjected to this?

 

[HeartSong]

I really don't mean to give off the impression that clinics are horrible! They are great ... for the most part. What I'm dealing with is probably 85% my own fault. I don't want to be a medical doctor and medicine doesn't interest me so that right there makes it harder than everyone else who is actually interested in what we are learning. I'm a passive person who doesn't like to take control, but here we are expected to take control right off the bat and tell the actual doctors what to do as far as diagnosis and treatment of the patient (of course they have final say). I knew that Cardiology was a challenging elective (though if I had known how much so, I wouldn't have taken it) but I did choose to take it. I'm mildly bi-polar but only diagnosed by a screening so it's not an official diagnosis, I am not being treated except for taking St. John's wort. I was on the downswing of that when clinics started plus I was pre-menstral the first week (I can't believe I just admitted that online). And I wasn't prepared for Cardiology being my first elective, I was expecting Diagnostics which is rumored to be the easiest rotation.

Yeah, so all of that combined is what got me into the situation I'm in. I can't imagine that anyone else would have the same experience so please no one freak out that clinics is awful.

I did find out that we have a pretty high rate of people failing various rotations here. I don't know how common that is in other schools. For me, a lot of it depends on the personality of the clinician I'm working with. I think I'm starting to accept the fact that I'll have to repeat this rotation. It's not the end of the world or the end of vet school, it just sure does feel like it right now.

 

[KittyRex]

Hang in there Heartsong!!!
I can't imagine being stuck with Cardiology as your first ever rotation!
hope it gets better for you...