V.i.n.?

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HopefulAg said:
Man I looked at some of the ophthalmology pictures yesterday and have no idea what they were talking about. One even had arrows but it was just blackness. Looked exactly like the rest of the eye.

Reminds me of histology: "just varying shades of purple".
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Lol, I love histology, so I don't know...maybe I'm biased towards the obscure specialties 😛 But really, ophthalmology ended up being more black and white to me than some of the other areas. It was weird at first, because I didn't like the class at all for about the first 2 weeks, and then ended up loving it.
 
Just keep in mind that VIN is not a free service for veterinarians. They pay a pretty high fee to be able to use it.
 
david594 said:
Just keep in mind that VIN is not a free service for veterinarians. They pay a pretty high fee to be able to use it.
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yeah, all the vets at my work said they would love to have a membership but it's cost-prohibitive. they don't feel they would use it enough to justify paying hundreds of dollars a year. i think i would probably do the same in their position.
 
I'll probably do the same. It's $700 IIRC for the year. Some practices pay the VIN fee but I'd imagine most don't.

You get a 70% discount your first year out of school and ~30% the second year, but then it's full price, at which point I'll probably drop it unless I find it ridiculously helpful that first year.
 
Sooo...anyone wanna explain to me how to work the message boards on VIN?
 
Click on the message board line at top.
On the right hand side there will be a "find since"
You can click on the down arrow and pick a range. 10 days will give you a good range.
On the left will pop up all the subject boards that posts have been entered in the specified number of days.
Click on the subject (i.e. Emergency Medicine)
The different threads will pop up under that, click on what you want and you're in.

🙂

Hope that helps.
 
Jamr0ckin said:
Click on the message board line at top.
On the right hand side there will be a "find since"
You can click on the down arrow and pick a range. 10 days will give you a good range.
On the left will pop up all the subject boards that posts have been entered in the specified number of days.
Click on the subject (i.e. Emergency Medicine)
The different threads will pop up under that, click on what you want and you're in.

🙂

Hope that helps.
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After you've done that once you can use 'find new' and it will give you posts since the last time you checked the message boards.
 
Although the V.I.N. membership cost is particularly high, keep in mind it is a *massive* network for veterinary information and due to this, the potential cost for a client who may have an obscure case might go down significantly. Mostly since it is easier to diagnose inhouse, without multiple referrals. This also means more money for the practice.

Every doctor I've met, in Chattanooga, uses V.I.N. religiously...mostly stating the pro's highly outweigh the con of the cost. IE: Less time pilfering through books, calling local specialty clinics or old mentors, a drastic reduction in case-study time, and its generally a good place to go for an idea if you are having a brain cloud as to what to do next.

So $~700 bucks a year may seem expensive at first, but the potential it can earn for you, or even just the potential of which it can affect your efficiency is quite large.
 
Quite honestly, I would tend to look askance at a prospective employer who DIDN'T see the value of VIN membership. They might not be able to pay for your access as part of a benefits package, but if in discussions with them THEY don't even have an account or they dismiss the whole notion of VIN, I would question whether they practice the progressive kind of medicine that I want to be practicing...
 
Yep. Medical practice is changing fast these days. You need some way to stay up to date. And this has to be an active process, something you consistently do on a routine basis. Just going to the yearly conference at Alma Mater University is no longer going to do it.

You need to compare the cost of a VIN subscritpion with the alternatives such as travel to CE meetings and journal subscriptions + the time away from producing to go to the meetings, read the journals. Also factor in the ability to get the information when you need it -- 1000s of veternarians just a mouse click away.

If a potential employer doesn't provide a VIN subscription I would ask how do they stay up to date? How will I be able to stay up to date? Of course VIN is not the only way to do it, but I would want to hear a definite plan.
 
KKibo said:
Although the V.I.N. membership cost is particularly high, keep in mind it is a *massive* network for veterinary information and due to this, the potential cost for a client who may have an obscure case might go down significantly. Mostly since it is easier to diagnose inhouse, without multiple referrals. This also means more money for the practice.

Every doctor I've met, in Chattanooga, uses V.I.N. religiously...mostly stating the pro's highly outweigh the con of the cost. IE: Less time pilfering through books, calling local specialty clinics or old mentors, a drastic reduction in case-study time, and its generally a good place to go for an idea if you are having a brain cloud as to what to do next.

So $~700 bucks a year may seem expensive at first, but the potential it can earn for you, or even just the potential of which it can affect your efficiency is quite large.
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👍 couldn't have said it better
 
Jamr0ckin said:
Click on the message board line at top.
On the right hand side there will be a "find since"
You can click on the down arrow and pick a range. 10 days will give you a good range.
On the left will pop up all the subject boards that posts have been entered in the specified number of days.
Click on the subject (i.e. Emergency Medicine)
The different threads will pop up under that, click on what you want and you're in.

🙂

Hope that helps.
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Thanks!! 🙂
 
Bill59 said:
Yep. Medical practice is changing fast these days. You need some way to stay up to date. And this has to be an active process, something you consistently do on a routine basis. Just going to the yearly conference at Alma Mater University is no longer going to do it.

You need to compare the cost of a VIN subscritpion with the alternatives such as travel to CE meetings and journal subscriptions + the time away from producing to go to the meetings, read the journals. Also factor in the ability to get the information when you need it -- 1000s of veternarians just a mouse click away.

If a potential employer doesn't provide a VIN subscription I would ask how do they stay up to date? How will I be able to stay up to date? Of course VIN is not the only way to do it, but I would want to hear a definite plan.
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Well said and agree wholeheartedly. It seems like a drop in the bucket for what is at your fingertips compared to how much it would cost either in time or travel to get the information otherwise.
 
since SDN is slow today and i finally have a break from writing my paper!! i decided to snoop around on VIN. wow, could it be more complicated?? coming from an electronic generation i feel like i know how to navigate most sites/blogs etc...or at least i FELT like i did lol this site is so confusing!! The first thing i did was click on message boards, i chose the Vet schools tab and went to Penn. and then i dont even know how to get there unless i say "post new" but i dont want to post anything new, i want to read what is in that folder lol help plz
 
Take a deep breath...

It's really not that difficult. There might just be nothing posted there. The default setting is to search for really recent posts, too. So you'll probably want to change that. FWIW, those school message boards aren't very active forums.

If you click the tab that says "Message Boards" on the top, then pick one from the Vet-to-Vet list (those are the most active it seems and there is one labeled Vet Students and House Staff) and go over on the right to where it says "Find since" BUT DON'T CLICK IT YET and to the right of that select something more extensive than the default (which I don't remember, for now I just have my default set to All) then click "Find since" it will bring up a list of discussions.

Come on, you guys aren't dumb, it's not that hard to figure out...

(and it was just explained less than 10 posts ago too jeez...)
 
Most of the individual vet schools don't have many active threads. The mods typically transfer the post to another appropriate folder. I can see why people get confused, but I've played with it for 2 years so I know it really well. If anyone has questions about it, I can try to help.
 
nyanko said:
Take a deep breath...

It's really not that difficult. There might just be nothing posted there. The default setting is to search for really recent posts, too. So you'll probably want to change that. FWIW, those school message boards aren't very active forums.

If you click the tab that says "Message Boards" on the top, then pick one from the Vet-to-Vet list (those are the most active it seems and there is one labeled Vet Students and House Staff) and go over on the right to where it says "Find since" BUT DON'T CLICK IT YET and to the right of that select something more extensive than the default (which I don't remember, for now I just have my default set to All) then click "Find since" it will bring up a list of discussions.

Come on, you guys aren't dumb, it's not that hard to figure out...

(and it was just explained less than 10 posts ago too jeez...)
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Ooo that explains it. Because, yes i DID read the post above :d I changed the date to 120 days back and nothing came up still so i thought I was doing it wrong. So i guess it is because the school boards aren't as active. thanks for the info!
 
nyanko said:
Not to be some kind of jerk, but you aren't a vet student or veterinarian, are you? How do you have access?
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I'm the head tech at the hospital I work at, and when my boss needs information, I do the searches and read the information for him.
 
Jamr0ckin said:
I'm the head tech at the hospital I work at, and when my boss needs information, I do the searches and read the information for him.
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As some pedantic nerd pointed out earlier, this is a violation of the user agreement.
 
Bill59 said:
As some pedantic nerd pointed out earlier, this is a violation of the user agreement.
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Yeah, it is. But other people on here say they've looked at it too while at work, not being a vet or vet student. It would be different if I was at home looking at it and posting replies/advice. But I'm not, I just do research on it for my boss (i.e. information about wallaby/kangaroo sedation and antibiotics).
 
Come on, you guys aren't dumb, it's not that hard to figure out...
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No but it is unusually cumbersome to navigate. It sucks going from a relatively streamlined board, such as this one, to that system. I hate navigating the VIN boards.
 
HopefulAg said:
No but it is unusually cumbersome to navigate. It sucks going from a relatively streamlined board, such as this one, to that system. I hate navigating the VIN boards.
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Wait, so we're allowed on there? I thought the general consensus was that you couldn't until after classes started. I want to sign up sooo badly but I dont want to piss off any future colleagues in doing so!
 
cowgirla said:
Wait, so we're allowed on there? I thought the general consensus was that you couldn't until after classes started. I want to sign up sooo badly but I dont want to piss off any future colleagues in doing so!
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As long as you qualify for an account you won't upset anyone as far as I can tell. They have allowed a bunch of 2014'ers to join recently so I guess the VIN higher ups have decided we're close enough to being real vet students for access. I signed up a day or two after getting my email set up and was granted access the next day. I don't participate in discussions anyway but I really love reading all the great info available!
 
Cowgirla, my understanding is that you can sign up/join as long as you have a vet school e-mail address. I've already joined (as have a lot of other SDNers). It took a little less than a day to be approved. Hope that helps.

cowgirla said:
Wait, so we're allowed on there? I thought the general consensus was that you couldn't until after classes started. I want to sign up sooo badly but I dont want to piss off any future colleagues in doing so!
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Jamr0ckin said:
Well that is your opinion.
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No, it's VIN's opinion. I really don't care one way or another.

And you aren't the one that's doing anything wrong. It's your boss. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he just doesn't realize it (although it's clearly spelled out in the user agreement).

But don't take my word for it ... why don't you shoot VIN an email, explain what's going on and see what they say?
 
Bill59 said:
No, it's VIN's opinion. I really don't care one way or another.

And you aren't the one that's doing anything wrong. It's your boss. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt and assume he just doesn't realize it (although it's clearly spelled out in the user agreement).

But don't take my word for it ... why don't you shoot VIN an email, explain what's going on and see what they say?
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So, I talked with my boss and he re-read the user agreement. Seems he thought it was ok since he was telling me what to look for, and he was supervising. But now he realizes its against the rules, I won't be doing his research anymore (which gives me time to do the things i need to do, so it doesn't bother me).

Sorry about the attitude, I was just going off what he had told me. Thanks for the heads up, I'd hate for him to get in trouble.
 
Jamr0ckin said:
So, I talked with my boss and he re-read the user agreement. Seems he thought it was ok since he was telling me what to look for, and he was supervising. But now he realizes its against the rules, I won't be doing his research anymore (which gives me time to do the things i need to do, so it doesn't bother me).

Sorry about the attitude, I was just going off what he had told me. Thanks for the heads up, I'd hate for him to get in trouble.
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I don't see why the rules have to be so strict. It's kind of silly if you ask me. It's not like you were posting anything. You were performing research under the supervision of your boss (a vet), and you're a head tech. No harm done, in my opinion.
 
zeebra44 said:
I don't see why the rules have to be so strict. It's kind of silly if you ask me. It's not like you were posting anything. You were performing research under the supervision of your boss (a vet), and you're a head tech. No harm done, in my opinion.
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There are things posted on VIN (specifically on the vet-to-vet) forums that are posted with the understanding that those reading are veterinarians (or vet students). Sometimes this may involve management/technician issues. All of the post list your name (real name not user name). The rules are made to let people speak openly.
 
chris03333 said:
There are things posted on VIN (specifically on the vet-to-vet) forums that are posted with the understanding that those reading are veterinarians (or vet students). Sometimes this may involve management/technician issues. All of the post list your name (real name not user name). The rules are made to let people speak openly.
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Ohh yes, I forgot that your real name is posted.
 
Thanks to everyone who brought up the issue of techs doing research for vet. This was also a common practice at the clinic I work out where our head tech (who is also the manager) would do research for the vet. I have brought this to the attention of the vets who have gone back over their agreements and this practice has stopped.
 
At work I have this habit of googling terms/diseases/names etc that I don't know... I think I might start "VIN-ing" them instead
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That's what I've started doing. Way better than Dr. Google.
 
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