Vet Experience - what qualifies?

[reauxjeaux]

Hi, I'm new to the pre-vet game and decided to finally stop lurking and post my burning question. So, I know that specific vet experience is required. My question is, how vet does it have to be to qualify? I volunteered at my local spay-neuter clinic 8 hours a week for three months during the spring, and learned a whole bunch, even got to know the vet pretty well. I will probably be returning in the fall as a paid employee. However, most of the work I've been doing has been in the front office. This does involve me learning a lot about parasites, spay/neuter surgeries, and shots, but I'm rarely working alongside the vet in the back. However, I did spend some of my time observing surgeries, and asked the vet tons of questions, but I wasn't actually trained beyond the front desk. I know I need more variety in my experiences, but does the work I've been doing even qualify as vet experience?

Thank you!

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[HopefulAg]

You can count when you actually worked with the vet, but other than that I don't believe you can count the hours.

It is a bit iffy though. Most of the time you're not actually working with the vet, because the vet is in talking with the client and you and fellow techs are working on the animal after the exam and instructions are given. Also you can count research experience under a vet as vet experience, and that's not really vet experience (*ducks from incoming projectiles*) in the sense that you're doing veterinary procedures on animals, but it's under a vet and well, you could be wanting to go into research so...it counts.

But from what it sounds like I don't think I'd put down what you're doing as vet experience.

 

[jtom]

A good way to think of it is whether or not you work in the front or back. If you work in the back, see the vet a good amount of the time, help the vet techs and work with the animals, then that is vet experience. It does not matter if you do not physically talk to the vet alot but as long as you are in the same general space as them, then that counts. If you work up front and do clerical work but do not do any vet tech related activities then that is not vet experience. Based on what you said, I would not classify that as vet experience and I would state it in your resume that you worked for a vet but do not put it in vet/animal experience hours.

Think of it this way: on the application I would assume you would have to state at your position at the clinic, what did you do? If you cannot say anything related to something a vet tech or even a kennel worker does, then they would disregard the hours if you put it down as vet experience hours.

Do not give up though because you got your foot in the door at the clinic. You could always ask the vet to be moved to the back at some point. It does help if you know the computer system etc so all is not lost. I would just say one day that obviously I want to become a vet and would like to be moved to the back so if you could when possible I would like to start doing vet tech related work.

 

[Angelo84]

I disagree with the above posts. I think that any time spent working at a vet clinic whether directly with the vet or not should be counted. Many places all the people are cross trained and work wherever is needed at the moment. So it would be pretty impossible to seperate out 'front vs back'.

 

[168135]

There was someone who made a post asking whether or not she has to separate her hours spent cleaning kennels from her hours spent with the vets and vet tech. I know that task would be impossible for me to do. They told the person that it didn't matter whether they were cleaning or helping/observing because they were being supervised by a DVM the entire time.

If she has to separate her reception time and her observation time, then shouldn't the volunteers be separating our cleaning time and our observation time?

A receptionist might have to explain to a client how a spay/neuter works. A volunteer mops floors. It wouldn't be fair to count the volunteer work as veterinary experience and what the receptionist does counts for nothing, right?

 

[heylodeb]

I also disagree.

Working as a receptionist is a great way to get involved in a veterinary hospital.

I counted every hour that I worked as a receptionist and UC Davis counted them as well.

Working as a receptionist will give you the opportunity to see more then the animal side of working as a vet - the people part! You'll have to deal with people who can't pay, people who can pay but refuse to....You'll get familiar with common drug names and see which are most often prescribed together and common amounts.

Sounds like you're on the right track - keep going! 🙂

 

[heylodeb]

sorry for a second post, but I want to clarify:

I am 99% positive that ANY time spent in a veterinary hospital or clinic can be counted as veterinary hours - this includes mopping floors, talking to clients, and normal "tech'ing" duties. I have spoken to 3 adcoms (Upenn, WSU, and UCD) in the last few weeks and have heard the same thing from them!

 

[cRose]

You should probably contact the staff at VMCAS with your question...they will be able to tell you exactly what can be counted as vet experience, and what should be counted as animal experience in your individual scenario.

 

[jpeterman13]

Also you can count research experience under a vet as vet experience, and that's not really vet experience (*ducks from incoming projectiles*) in the sense that you're doing veterinary procedures on animals, but it's under a vet and well, you could be wanting to go into research so...it counts.

Well, any research done under the supervision of a DVM or PhD (which is animal related) counts as veterinary experience, they don't have to be a DVM...they say "health professional" often, but a PhD fits the bill. Again, only if you are working with animals. If you are working with plants or doing chemistry work, although you can mention it in your application, it doesn't count as veterinary experience. You also need some diverse clinical hours too though.

 

[Minnerbelle]

I am 99% positive that ANY time spent in a veterinary hospital or clinic can be counted as veterinary hours - this includes mopping floors, talking to clients, and normal "tech'ing" duties.

Yes! The point of getting vet experience is so that pre-vets learn what the vet world is actually like since kids tend to romanticize the profession. It's not there to make sure you know tech skills, cause you really don't need to know them to get accepted. My only clinical vet experience I have was purely tech work (all treatments, surgery prep, blood draws and no cleaning, walking, feeding, client work, etc...) and I'm sure someone who was a receptionist has learned sooooo much more about what a vet clinic is about than me.

Also you can count research experience under a vet as vet experience, and that's not really vet experience (*ducks from incoming projectiles*) in the sense that you're doing veterinary procedures on animals, but it's under a vet and well, you could be wanting to go into research so...it counts.

If I were a disgruntled gorilla in a crappy zoo, I'd throw poop at ya right around now!

haha, my research experience under an MD was my primary vet experience, and I didn't do many vet procedures on animals. However, I do know how to make a virus containing any gene in the world (made-up or real) from scratch and infect anyone with it so that the gene gets incorporated into their genome. Talk about a cool projectile to fling *demonic laugh.* This kind of biomedical research is 100% applicable to vet research.

 

[nyanko]

This kind of biomedical research is 100% applicable to vet research.

Yeah, this sentiment of "research is only vet experience if it involves animals" has kind of been a new thing that's shown up here. It's really really missing one of the major points of research to say that - just like with working at a clinic the tech skills aren't necessarily the most important part of what to learn from research. The thought process is, and understanding what's at the root of scientific medicine. Working at a clinic you get to see the side of the profession that the public sees. But what you are seeing is the public interface of all those people doing research, including chemists doing research on plant molecules!

 

[GellaBella]

Yeah, this sentiment of "research is only vet experience if it involves animals" has kind of been a new thing that's shown up here. It's really really missing one of the major points of research to say that - just like with working at a clinic the tech skills aren't necessarily the most important part of what to learn from research. The thought process is, and understanding what's at the root of scientific medicine. Working at a clinic you get to see the side of the profession that the public sees. But what you are seeing is the public interface of all those people doing research, including chemists doing research on plant molecules!

I noticed this too. The statement has been popping up more and more frequently the last couple months.

If I was an epidemiologist I would try to trace it back to its origin cause someone must have said it and now its infecting everyone else and its being repeated again and again.

The majority of my "vet experience" is research. My research for the past 6 years has not involved animals at all. But I'm studying antibiotic resistance in bacteria (relevant to vet med? ohhh you betcha) and gaining a variety of skills I could use to study animal diseases or whatever later on.

So yeah. I would say BIOLOGICAL research performed under the supervision of a DVM/VMD, MD, or PhD counts as veterinary experience as outlined in the VMCAS.

 

[jpeterman13]

I noticed this too. The statement has been popping up more and more frequently the last couple months.

If I was an epidemiologist I would try to trace it back to its origin cause someone must have said it and now its infecting everyone else and its being repeated again and again.

The majority of my "vet experience" is research. My research for the past 6 years has not involved animals at all. But I'm studying antibiotic resistance in bacteria (relevant to vet med? ohhh you betcha) and gaining a variety of skills I could use to study animal diseases or whatever later on.

So yeah. I would say BIOLOGICAL research performed under the supervision of a DVM/VMD, MD, or PhD counts as veterinary experience as outlined in the VMCAS.

I think that one reason that this has been coming up more and more is that last year, VMCAS had a forum and it was stated pretty clearly by them that if there were no animals involved that you couldn't list it as veterinary experience. However, I would hope that if something counted as veterinary experience and it wasn't listed under that section, the individual schools can still count it when they see it. I agree completely with you guys though...they should use the word "relevant" or "applicable" to veterinary medicine as opposed to saying that it needs to involve animals.

 

[twelvetigers]

I think most people (including myself, if that phrase has ever been included in one of my posts) mean that physics research won't count, or chemistry research won't count. Saying that it needs to 'involve animals' is definitely oversimplifying. If you can make it reasonably relevant to vet med, then include it in vet experience and make sure the explanation focuses on that relevancy, especially if it's not 100% apparent. Worst case is, the school doesn't agree, and moves it into another category.