Breaking news: Vet school does something efficiently!

One of my favorite moments of this school year thus far occurred in my Week 3 Community Practice/Surgery rotation (and I can't remember if I already wrote about it here, so maybe you'll get to hear it twice).

My single CPS week happened to begin on the same day that a 4-week rotation for the senior students began, so we started Monday morning with a general orientation for everyone.

One of the first activities was to go around the (very small, crowded) room and have each of the 16 people tell their name, where they're from, their vet med interests, several goals for what they wanted to get out of CPS, and one thing about their junior or senior year so far that has surprised them.

One of my classmates' surprises went something like this:

"Now that we've been in the hospital for a couple weeks, and had a chance to see different departments and learn the procedures and paperwork and forms and charts and rules, my biggest surprise of the year is that anything ever gets done around here."

She wasn't joking, and I can understand her feelings. Because it's a teaching hospital, many things are more redundant than how you'd operate in private practice or elsewhere in the "real world" -- and I think that redundancy is probably to our benefit as students while we're learning, but it definitely slows things down and makes you want to bang your head against the wall sometimes.

Well, today I encountered an example of how the vet school does one thing better than anywhere else I've gone: giving flu shots to staff and students.

Since the student health service on main campus has very limited vaccine hours (M-F 9-12 and 1-4) that are completely incompatible with the schedules of most clinicians, technical staff, and 3rd & 4th year students, the VTH kindly brings over a couple of nurses once a year in the fall to spend a couple hours administering flu shots.

This year's flu shots were available from 1:30-3:30 this afternoon. Since I and all of my classmates had lectures until 2:50, I hurried over to the diagnostic lab for my vaccine as soon as I could once class got out. I was fully prepared to wait for awhile, anticipating a rush of other junior students eager to build up some herd immunity among ourselves.

Well, there was a bit of a rush, but it was literally no more than 2 minutes for me to sign in, pay my $20, fill out a consent form, discuss with the nurse my allergies and prior vaccinations, get the shot and get out of there. I was so impressed. The student health center on campus is pretty darned efficient -- I can usually be in and out for a vaccine within 15-20 minutes** -- but that's nowhere near today's awesome assembly line of flu prevention. Go VTH!

**And I've had lots of experience at the immunization dept at student health: As a freshman I got an MMR, tetanus, flu, and 3 rabies vaccines. As a sophomore I got a regular flu shot and the H1N1. I scoff at people who fear giving their pets too many vaccines! At least you aren't giving them 8 vaccines in less than 2 years! (Ok, you might be if you go to a shall-remain-nameless Giant Veterinary Corporation at which I have been employed, but let's not open that can of worms tonight.)