Right now I'm a first year undergrad, I volunteer at a shelter where they are pretty much training me to be a veterinary assistant, I monitor animals post surgery, help prep them, assemble surgery packs, etc. I also work about 25-27 hours a week as a barista. I really hate my job as a barista and am hoping to land a job as an assistant.
I know volunteering is something pretty much all pre-vets do, but how many pre-vets actually work as veterinary assistants while in school? How do you like the experience? Do you feel it's confirmed your decision to go to vet school? Do you find it leaves an ok amount of room for you to focus on school? How many days/hours do you work a week? What are your responsibilities?
I'm thinking working as a VA while in school would kill two birds with one stone, I could quit my other job and get clinical experience at the same time... Only thing I'm worried about is potentially burning out and not having time to study. Does anyone think admissions would somehow look down on too many clinical hours?? Do they differentiate between volunteer/shadowing hours vs working hours?
PS, did a search didn't find answers to my specific questions. Most threads were people considering getting a vet tech degree.
So I have worked as a VA for the past 3 years during undergrad (2nd through 4th year). I started off working 15-20 hours a week, which moved up after my first semester to 20-25 hours, my whole third year I worked between 25 to 35, and now I am working 30-40.
I did minimal volunteering. I gained about 100 hours of horse experience during one of my summers working full time, but otherwise all of my other volunteering was prior to undergrad.
I personally love the experience. I am at a place with three doctors that all want to teach me as much as possible prior to vet school, and you really get a great feel for the clinical side of things (depending on the place you are working at). In terms of confirming, I was very set on it beforehand, so it didn't have a major impact on it, but it certainly helped reassure me that this is the right path.
The school bit becomes interesting. It depends on where you work and how accommodating they are. I work for one of the corporate ones, and have worked at 6 different hospitals throughout my time with them, and have seen HUGE amounts of variation with the flexibility of schedules. If you get an awesome practice manager, like my home hospital, she makes it work for you and lightens things up for you around big exams, etc. But it is VERY MUCH practice and practice manager specific, so it's a discussion you would need to have during your interview.
Currently I am working between 4-5 days a week on average, although am hitting 6 days on occasion. Way back when I started, I was worked 2-3 days a week on average. Again, the flexibility of it really depends on the practice. I know one in my area that targets pre-vet students and hires them to work 5-10 hours a week. However, through a pretty good sample size in my area, what I have seen is the more hours you put in, the more responsibilities you have. A lot of the places that are having you in 5-10 hours a week are simply places where you are cleaning kennels and holding, which there is certainly nothing wrong with. For me, I was looking to gain as large a breadth of experience as possible.
My responsibilities are pretty much everything. Obviously the basics of holding, TPRs, and cleaning, but also monitoring anesthesia, blood draws, reading and obtaining all diagnostics, nail trims, expressing anal glands, beak/wing trims, obtaining a history, writing all medical notes, explaining treatment plans to clients, cleaning and flushing wounds, administering vaccines and injections, giving IV and SC fluids, etc (pretty much anything that does not constitute things that ONLY a veterinarian can do). I also do receptionist work, and usually work one day a week to knock out all the calls for the rest of the week. I have done managerial stuff as well, and done things like ordering medical supplies, dealing with cat calls, making doctor schedules, etc but that was more due to a want to take up a leadership position there.
For the school I am going to, Mizzou, they actually like to see clinical hours during school, and factor the amount of hours you are working each week into the whole spectrum of what grades you are getting and how many credits you are taking (they explain it briefly on the supplemental). It's important to note that working a lot of hours at a clinic each week is NOT an excuse for bad grades. However, if you are able to maintain good grades, while juggling working part time at a clinic, it would definitely be seen in a positive light.
Some schools DO differentiate hours. At the Mizzou interview, they are assessing QUALITY of experience. Aka, a person who just restrained pets and cleaned kennels for 10 hours a week isn't having the same quality of experience as someone who is monitoring anesthesia and reading a wide range of diagnostics, etc.
With regards to burning out, that is all based on the type of person. For me, I like staying very busy (sometimes insanely busy, but uk). I was able to RA, TA, work, do marching band, teach etc. while maintaining a course load of 16 credits on average. You have to do what's right for you, and what is right for one person is not what would be right for another person.
One other thing to consider is that most clinics are unwilling to accommodate you not being there over summers/breaks, so that's another big factor to keep in mind as well.
If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to pm me
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Thanks
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