(also alliterations)
Here are some more of my favorite Capstone-related comments from Facebook:
"Done with online capstone!! Really squeaked by on that last one. Actually I didn't technically pass until the ungraded portion gets fixed. Striving for excellence was so last year"
"must... finish... online... capstone..."
"Home cooked meal, bottle of red, movie, and my wonderful boyfriend...suck it, capstone exam!!!"
"Two and a half days till Capstone and already I don't want to study anymore....must continue because I need to still open some courses."
Where am I along this meandering yet stressful Capstone path? I'm finished with 5 of the 8 online/open-book sections, and am just about ready to give up studying for Monday's in-class portion. Really I need to finish studying respiratory disease (I'm about halfway through) and study all of Therio (yikes), then do some last-minute review of anesthesia, cardiac drugs, pharmacology, etc. tomorrow afternoon. At this point I'm mostly just looking forward to being done with it. As my classmate so aptly posted, "Striving for excellence is so last year." :-)
Saturday, August 21, 2010
Thursday, August 19, 2010
Capstone looms
The online/open-book portion of this year's Capstone opened 3 days ago, and is due by Labor Day. The in-class/closed-book portion is in 4 days. Gaaaahhhh!
But seriously, it'll all be ok.
In lieu of studying at the moment, I thought I'd share some of my classmates' Capstone-related comments on Facebook:
"Want to go to bed but there are two dogs and lots of three-ring binders in the way. Guess I should take back the bed."
"Capstone was a much more enjoyable experience whist drinking a delicious glass of moscato! Only one left, and I've at least started it. Then on to studying the many things I don't remember... two days should be sufficient, right?"
"Sigh, you know it's the week before capstone when you wake up at 4:00AM and your brain will NOT fall back to sleep... why, oh why, do you torment me. Guess I'm up for the day."
"Trying to end this court dispute over my bathroom remodel... capstone will have to wait..."
"my cortisol levels are elevating, two more online exams..."
"Company left this morning and the radiator on the Suburban exploded. Studying's overrated anyway, right?"
And those were all in the last 24 hours. Think we're obsessed with Capstone much?
But seriously, it'll all be ok.
In lieu of studying at the moment, I thought I'd share some of my classmates' Capstone-related comments on Facebook:
"Want to go to bed but there are two dogs and lots of three-ring binders in the way. Guess I should take back the bed."
"Capstone was a much more enjoyable experience whist drinking a delicious glass of moscato! Only one left, and I've at least started it. Then on to studying the many things I don't remember... two days should be sufficient, right?"
"Sigh, you know it's the week before capstone when you wake up at 4:00AM and your brain will NOT fall back to sleep... why, oh why, do you torment me. Guess I'm up for the day."
"Trying to end this court dispute over my bathroom remodel... capstone will have to wait..."
"my cortisol levels are elevating, two more online exams..."
"Company left this morning and the radiator on the Suburban exploded. Studying's overrated anyway, right?"
And those were all in the last 24 hours. Think we're obsessed with Capstone much?
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
What I learned at "Junior Orientation"
Yesterday we had our much-anticipated day-long "Junior Orientation." I use quotation marks because, unfortunately, upon our arrival at 8 am we rapidly ascertained that the day's schedule had very little to do what we actually need to know to be juniors.
Sigh.
Here's what we DID get to experience:
1. 3.5 hours of radiation safety training, including such helpful tidbits as "we will kick you out of vet school if you take an xray of yourself"; "don't eat or drink the radioactive isotopes"; and in regards to reporting problems, "if it seems weird, there's probably something bad going on." Blah blah blah, wear your dosimetry badge, tell us if you're pregnant, make your classmates help you when you take xrays. Got it.
2. 30 minutes (haha) of VTH Biosecurity discussion - which ended up being about 6 minutes of the assistant to the biosecurity director (since the director himself suddenly couldn't be there) killing time and finally recommending that we just go read the 135-page biosecurity manual for ourselves.
3. 20 minutes of senior practicum discussion. That's right, we're still a week away from starting our 9-month JUNIOR practicum but one of the most relevant things they can include for us in junior orientation is a discussion of senior year. And most of what they told us was that, finally, starting with my graduating class, we don't have to do "wards duty" (which sounded really horrible: the Internal Medicine or Radiology students got multiple weeks of the year when they were assigned to after-hours duty, meaning they worked in IM or Radiology from 8-5 and then took care of after-hours patients from 5-11 pm, then got to go home at 11 IF there was nothing else left to do, but were on call from 11 pm to 8 am, when they started their next day of Internal Med or Radiology; my lucky class just gets to have 2 weeks of the year where the only thing we do is after-hours duty (assigned 5-11pm, on call till 8am, but free from 8am-5pm); sounds much better).
4. 10 minutes of "Rationale for completion of the Animal Welfare Act Training Module" which apparently is something that we have to do on RamCT that everyone always complains about doing so they decided during orientation they should tell us why we have to do it, but they never really told us that after all.
5. 2 hours (TWO HOURS) of a "Tolerance and Diversity" seminar taught by somebody from the university's human resources dept (who, to her credit, made the seminar just about as "fun" as I think anybody could). We learned that you can't discriminate against people, that you should probably go tell someone if you're being sexually harassed, and that we should all learn how to manage conflict. Boy howdy. Probably would have been a more interesting talk if I hadn't JUST covered all that stuff last spring between my mandatory VTH employee (tour guide) sexual harassment awareness training, and my semester-long Business Law & Ethics course.
6. 20 minutes of an "explanation" on how to use the various computer systems at the VTH to access digital xrays. Yes, that's all they taught us about the computer programms, the electronic records, etc: how to find the xrays. Which was totally useless, since we don't even know the name of the software, how to access it, how to login, how to look up a client, how to look up a patient, etc. But at least once we figure that out, we'll be able to find the patient's xrays. Unless we've forgotten what we learned at "Junior Orientation."
Here are a few of the things they DIDN'T talk about at Junior Orientation:
1. VTH dress code (which was mentioned during our FRESHMAN orientation) but we could all use a little refresher on, since everybody in my class seems to have a different opinion on it
2. What time to show up and where to go for our first set of junior rotations, starting a week from today. (Side note: I think I managed to figure mine out based on some intensive sleuthing on the vet school website: Junior Lecture Hall at SEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING.)
3. Facilities available for use in the VTH (which I mostly found on my own by wandering around: mail boxes, locker rooms, student lounge, bagel shop/cafeteria, computer labs, etc.).
It really seems like either (a) they sent out an email detailing all of this vital information a month ago, but nobody in my class actually got the email; (b) they are simply totally clueless about how confused we all are; or (c) the administration is being intentionally ambiguous in an attempt to "break us in" to the reality of being junior and senior students.
Who knows!
Sigh.
Here's what we DID get to experience:
1. 3.5 hours of radiation safety training, including such helpful tidbits as "we will kick you out of vet school if you take an xray of yourself"; "don't eat or drink the radioactive isotopes"; and in regards to reporting problems, "if it seems weird, there's probably something bad going on." Blah blah blah, wear your dosimetry badge, tell us if you're pregnant, make your classmates help you when you take xrays. Got it.
2. 30 minutes (haha) of VTH Biosecurity discussion - which ended up being about 6 minutes of the assistant to the biosecurity director (since the director himself suddenly couldn't be there) killing time and finally recommending that we just go read the 135-page biosecurity manual for ourselves.
3. 20 minutes of senior practicum discussion. That's right, we're still a week away from starting our 9-month JUNIOR practicum but one of the most relevant things they can include for us in junior orientation is a discussion of senior year. And most of what they told us was that, finally, starting with my graduating class, we don't have to do "wards duty" (which sounded really horrible: the Internal Medicine or Radiology students got multiple weeks of the year when they were assigned to after-hours duty, meaning they worked in IM or Radiology from 8-5 and then took care of after-hours patients from 5-11 pm, then got to go home at 11 IF there was nothing else left to do, but were on call from 11 pm to 8 am, when they started their next day of Internal Med or Radiology; my lucky class just gets to have 2 weeks of the year where the only thing we do is after-hours duty (assigned 5-11pm, on call till 8am, but free from 8am-5pm); sounds much better).
4. 10 minutes of "Rationale for completion of the Animal Welfare Act Training Module" which apparently is something that we have to do on RamCT that everyone always complains about doing so they decided during orientation they should tell us why we have to do it, but they never really told us that after all.
5. 2 hours (TWO HOURS) of a "Tolerance and Diversity" seminar taught by somebody from the university's human resources dept (who, to her credit, made the seminar just about as "fun" as I think anybody could). We learned that you can't discriminate against people, that you should probably go tell someone if you're being sexually harassed, and that we should all learn how to manage conflict. Boy howdy. Probably would have been a more interesting talk if I hadn't JUST covered all that stuff last spring between my mandatory VTH employee (tour guide) sexual harassment awareness training, and my semester-long Business Law & Ethics course.
6. 20 minutes of an "explanation" on how to use the various computer systems at the VTH to access digital xrays. Yes, that's all they taught us about the computer programms, the electronic records, etc: how to find the xrays. Which was totally useless, since we don't even know the name of the software, how to access it, how to login, how to look up a client, how to look up a patient, etc. But at least once we figure that out, we'll be able to find the patient's xrays. Unless we've forgotten what we learned at "Junior Orientation."
Here are a few of the things they DIDN'T talk about at Junior Orientation:
1. VTH dress code (which was mentioned during our FRESHMAN orientation) but we could all use a little refresher on, since everybody in my class seems to have a different opinion on it
2. What time to show up and where to go for our first set of junior rotations, starting a week from today. (Side note: I think I managed to figure mine out based on some intensive sleuthing on the vet school website: Junior Lecture Hall at SEVEN THIRTY IN THE MORNING.)
3. Facilities available for use in the VTH (which I mostly found on my own by wandering around: mail boxes, locker rooms, student lounge, bagel shop/cafeteria, computer labs, etc.).
It really seems like either (a) they sent out an email detailing all of this vital information a month ago, but nobody in my class actually got the email; (b) they are simply totally clueless about how confused we all are; or (c) the administration is being intentionally ambiguous in an attempt to "break us in" to the reality of being junior and senior students.
Who knows!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Vets like 'x's
As I sit in the box office on a slow day, trying to work up the motivation to dive into 19 pages of notes about diarrhea in piglets, I can't keep my mind from wandering...
So here's some random trivia for you. Members of the veterinary profession looooove acronyms and abbreviations, and lately I've realized just how much we like to add 'x' to other letters of the alphabet and decide that it stands for something. Here are some examples for you:
Ax: anesthesia
Bx: biopsy
Cx: cortex
Dx: diagnosis
Fx: fracture
Hx: history
Px: prognosis
Rx: prescription
Sx: surgery (sometimes 'symptoms')
Tx: treatment or therapy
Vx: vaccination
So I can say: "Pp w/hx of adv rxn to ax during liver bx; no recent vx or rx; rDVM dx'd w/PSS & tx'd pt w/SAMe & NSAIDs."
Which means: "Patient presented with a history of adverse reaction to anesthesia during liver biopsy; no recent vaccines or prescription medication; regular vet diagnosed with portosystemic shunt and treated patient with s-adenylmethionine and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories." (Which is not actually how you'd probably want to treat a portosystemic shunt, but I'm just trying to make a point: abbreviations are awesome!)
Now I have to go study piglet diarrhea.... bummer.
So here's some random trivia for you. Members of the veterinary profession looooove acronyms and abbreviations, and lately I've realized just how much we like to add 'x' to other letters of the alphabet and decide that it stands for something. Here are some examples for you:
Ax: anesthesia
Bx: biopsy
Cx: cortex
Dx: diagnosis
Fx: fracture
Hx: history
Px: prognosis
Rx: prescription
Sx: surgery (sometimes 'symptoms')
Tx: treatment or therapy
Vx: vaccination
So I can say: "Pp w/hx of adv rxn to ax during liver bx; no recent vx or rx; rDVM dx'd w/PSS & tx'd pt w/SAMe & NSAIDs."
Which means: "Patient presented with a history of adverse reaction to anesthesia during liver biopsy; no recent vaccines or prescription medication; regular vet diagnosed with portosystemic shunt and treated patient with s-adenylmethionine and non-steroidal anti-inflammatories." (Which is not actually how you'd probably want to treat a portosystemic shunt, but I'm just trying to make a point: abbreviations are awesome!)
Now I have to go study piglet diarrhea.... bummer.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Box Office, Year 3
Yes, it's that time of year again: the choral festival (or coral festival, if the 'h' button on your keyboard isn't working too great; on the other hand, maybe that would be more fun some days?).
To start off the summer, here are my top 3 favorite greetings I received yesterday from choristers who had just arrived for the first of four week-long sessions:
Number 3:
Chorister: "Oh, hi, I see you're in the box office again. Did they finally put you on payroll this year?"
Me (in reality): "Oh, no, I've been paid for all three years, don't worry."
Me (in my imagination): "Why on earth would you think I'd do this job for no pay?"
Number 2:
Chorister (whom I've never met before, approaches me while I'm in one of the dorm lounges studying, and says the following in a sing-song voice you'd use to talk to a not-especially-bright toddler): "Hi, there, dear! Are you a sing-er?"
Me: "No, I work in the box office."
Chorister: "Oh, good for you, sweetie!"
Me (in my imagination): ".......?"
And my number 1 favorite so far:
Chorister: "Hi! It's great to see you again! How've you been-- did you have your baby?!"
Me: "Um... you must be thinking of somebody else?"
Me (in my imagination): "Guess I won't be wearing this shirt again."
And so the madness begins!
To start off the summer, here are my top 3 favorite greetings I received yesterday from choristers who had just arrived for the first of four week-long sessions:
Number 3:
Chorister: "Oh, hi, I see you're in the box office again. Did they finally put you on payroll this year?"
Me (in reality): "Oh, no, I've been paid for all three years, don't worry."
Me (in my imagination): "Why on earth would you think I'd do this job for no pay?"
Number 2:
Chorister (whom I've never met before, approaches me while I'm in one of the dorm lounges studying, and says the following in a sing-song voice you'd use to talk to a not-especially-bright toddler): "Hi, there, dear! Are you a sing-er?"
Me: "No, I work in the box office."
Chorister: "Oh, good for you, sweetie!"
Me (in my imagination): ".......?"
And my number 1 favorite so far:
Chorister: "Hi! It's great to see you again! How've you been-- did you have your baby?!"
Me: "Um... you must be thinking of somebody else?"
Me (in my imagination): "Guess I won't be wearing this shirt again."
And so the madness begins!
Saturday, July 10, 2010
Junior practicum schedule has arrived
A couple weeks ago they notified all of us about-to-be-junior-vet-students that we could check out our schedules online for our junior practicum rotations.
(Reminder for those who are confused: at my school, the 3rd year is half "junior practicum" -- a series of week-long rotations through the different departments of the hospital -- and half classes. Rotations all morning, classes all afternoon. We get 13 weeks of core rotations during the year, and 6 elective weeks each semester, to be chosen from about 25 options each semester.)
I'm pretty happy with my schedule. Overall I got almost all of the electives that I really wanted, although there are a couple "interesting" rotations thrown in that, let's just say, weren't too high on my list.
My core rotations are:
1. Surgical Principles Lab - fall, week 1
2. Large Animal Procedures Lab - fall, week 2 - this is possibly the rotation that I'm looking forward to the least, so I'm glad to get it over with early in the year
3. Radiology - fall, week 4 - should be a good rotation; they say that you learn more in a 20-hour, 1 week session of junior practicum radiology than you do in the previous 2 semesters of classes - and I like radiology to begin with
4. Small Animal Procedures Lab - fall, week 5
5. Client Communication Skills 1 - fall, week 6 - this is the infamous rotation where you have to practice expressing empathy and using reflective listening (etc, blah blah blah) while being videotaped and watched by your friends....
6. Emerging & Exotic Animal Diseases - fall, week 8 - no idea what this is?
7. Clinical Pathology - fall, week 13 - I love Clin Path! LOVE IT!
8. Independent Study - fall, week 15 - no idea yet what I'll do for this, but it's nice that it's toward the end of the semester
9. Diagnostic Parasitology - fall, week 16 - parasitology = yuck but learning it = important
10. Anesthesia - spring, weeks 12&13 - this is one of the scariest rotations out there and I am already scared of anesthesia so we'll see how it goes... glad it's not till the end of the year
11. Clinical Communication Skills 2 - spring, week 14 - another dastardly communications rotation... I'm over it already
12. Independent Study - spring, week 15 - again, no idea what to do, but I'll work it out
And, drum roll please, my electives!
1. Community Practice Surgery - fall, week 3 - 2 days of seeing appointments with senior students, and 3 days of assisting seniors with dentals, spays, and neuters; I'm a little bit nervous about this one because rumor has it that the junior student is responsible for running the anesthesia for the senior students' cases...
2. Soft Tissue Diagnostics - fall, week 7 - I'm not entirely sure what this rotation entails although I ranked it pretty high
3. Community Practice Medicine - fall, week 9 - more healthy pet and mildly sick pet appts seen with senior students
4. Junior Surgery Lab - fall, week 10 - I am excited for this one! This is where we anesthetize cull pigs (purchased by the vet school before they were to be sent to slaughter anyway) and practice almost any surgery we want on them; pigs are euthanized at the end of the lab without waking up
5. Small Animal Surgical Anatomy - fall, week 11 - practicing a bunch of fancier surgical procedures on cadavers
6. Small Animal Medicine - fall, week 12 - seeing internal medicine cases
7. Oncology - spring, week 5 - mixed feelings about this one; oncology (cancer medicine) is one of those things that you see every day in small animal private practice, but it's also sort of depressing.... but I think it will be good to get more experience dealing with the sort of issues that crop up in oncology
8. Rabbit & Rodent Medicine - spring, week 6 - I was really quite alarmed at first that this rotation (which I ranked #15/25) made it onto my schedule, but after getting used to the idea, I think it will be good for me to learn a bit more about bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, and rats, since I've elected not to take any of the exotics electives so far
9. Evening Urgent Care - spring, week 7 - this sounds like sort of a cool rotation; instead of coming in from 8am-noon, you work 5-11pm and have the morning off; you take care of hospitalized patients and help admit urgent care/emergency cases that come in during the evening
10. Shelter Medicine - spring, week 8 - not super thrilled about this one since I don't know how much I'll learn, but I will get to do some cat neuters, and at least it's not horses or cows, right?
11. Orthopaedic Diagnostics - spring, week 10 - another one I'm not too excited about (ranked #17/25); it's not that I'm not interested in orthopaedic diagnostics, it's just that most of the orthopaedics clinicians I've had contact with so far in the curriculum have really come across as jerks
12. Cardiology - spring, week 11 - I love cardiology! I really enjoyed our 4 intensive weeks of cardiac medicine this past spring, and although cardiology is a required senior rotation, I really wanted to get it as a junior too for more experience (and so I don't forget everything I learned as a sophomore before I'm a senior)
What rotations didn't I get?
I was really bummed to not get neurology, until I realized that no one got neurology - I think they cancelled it as a junior rotation. I can take it as a senior.
I wanted complementary & alternative medicine, and was disappointed to not have that on my schedule, but it looks like they only accepted 9 students for the entire year. That was a rotation I wanted more because I think it would be good to learn than because I'm interested in it. I'm taking the elective complementary medicine class this fall, anyway.
I didn't realize that I'd ranked dermatology #6/25 for my spring electives, but apparently I did... and didn't get it. Not too sad about that one, since I'm not sure why I ranked it so high to begin with.
Advanced surgical techniques - a rotation that sounded really cool but probably wouldn't be that applicable to the type of practice I want to do (things like laparoscopy, laser surgery, cryosurgery, etc.).
Spanish for Veterinarians - I don't like the instructor so I ranked this pretty low, plus I already own some good resources for translating vet med into Spanish.
Food animal / equine / zoo med / exotics / lab animal / wildlife rotations or more independent study - these all went at the way bottom of my ranking lists, and good riddance!
So, all in all, I think that I pretty much got what I wanted. Of the rotations I wanted and didn't get, there's not much of that that I won't get as a senior anyway, so no worries.
(Reminder for those who are confused: at my school, the 3rd year is half "junior practicum" -- a series of week-long rotations through the different departments of the hospital -- and half classes. Rotations all morning, classes all afternoon. We get 13 weeks of core rotations during the year, and 6 elective weeks each semester, to be chosen from about 25 options each semester.)
I'm pretty happy with my schedule. Overall I got almost all of the electives that I really wanted, although there are a couple "interesting" rotations thrown in that, let's just say, weren't too high on my list.
My core rotations are:
1. Surgical Principles Lab - fall, week 1
2. Large Animal Procedures Lab - fall, week 2 - this is possibly the rotation that I'm looking forward to the least, so I'm glad to get it over with early in the year
3. Radiology - fall, week 4 - should be a good rotation; they say that you learn more in a 20-hour, 1 week session of junior practicum radiology than you do in the previous 2 semesters of classes - and I like radiology to begin with
4. Small Animal Procedures Lab - fall, week 5
5. Client Communication Skills 1 - fall, week 6 - this is the infamous rotation where you have to practice expressing empathy and using reflective listening (etc, blah blah blah) while being videotaped and watched by your friends....
6. Emerging & Exotic Animal Diseases - fall, week 8 - no idea what this is?
7. Clinical Pathology - fall, week 13 - I love Clin Path! LOVE IT!
8. Independent Study - fall, week 15 - no idea yet what I'll do for this, but it's nice that it's toward the end of the semester
9. Diagnostic Parasitology - fall, week 16 - parasitology = yuck but learning it = important
10. Anesthesia - spring, weeks 12&13 - this is one of the scariest rotations out there and I am already scared of anesthesia so we'll see how it goes... glad it's not till the end of the year
11. Clinical Communication Skills 2 - spring, week 14 - another dastardly communications rotation... I'm over it already
12. Independent Study - spring, week 15 - again, no idea what to do, but I'll work it out
And, drum roll please, my electives!
1. Community Practice Surgery - fall, week 3 - 2 days of seeing appointments with senior students, and 3 days of assisting seniors with dentals, spays, and neuters; I'm a little bit nervous about this one because rumor has it that the junior student is responsible for running the anesthesia for the senior students' cases...
2. Soft Tissue Diagnostics - fall, week 7 - I'm not entirely sure what this rotation entails although I ranked it pretty high
3. Community Practice Medicine - fall, week 9 - more healthy pet and mildly sick pet appts seen with senior students
4. Junior Surgery Lab - fall, week 10 - I am excited for this one! This is where we anesthetize cull pigs (purchased by the vet school before they were to be sent to slaughter anyway) and practice almost any surgery we want on them; pigs are euthanized at the end of the lab without waking up
5. Small Animal Surgical Anatomy - fall, week 11 - practicing a bunch of fancier surgical procedures on cadavers
6. Small Animal Medicine - fall, week 12 - seeing internal medicine cases
7. Oncology - spring, week 5 - mixed feelings about this one; oncology (cancer medicine) is one of those things that you see every day in small animal private practice, but it's also sort of depressing.... but I think it will be good to get more experience dealing with the sort of issues that crop up in oncology
8. Rabbit & Rodent Medicine - spring, week 6 - I was really quite alarmed at first that this rotation (which I ranked #15/25) made it onto my schedule, but after getting used to the idea, I think it will be good for me to learn a bit more about bunnies, guinea pigs, hamsters, mice, and rats, since I've elected not to take any of the exotics electives so far
9. Evening Urgent Care - spring, week 7 - this sounds like sort of a cool rotation; instead of coming in from 8am-noon, you work 5-11pm and have the morning off; you take care of hospitalized patients and help admit urgent care/emergency cases that come in during the evening
10. Shelter Medicine - spring, week 8 - not super thrilled about this one since I don't know how much I'll learn, but I will get to do some cat neuters, and at least it's not horses or cows, right?
11. Orthopaedic Diagnostics - spring, week 10 - another one I'm not too excited about (ranked #17/25); it's not that I'm not interested in orthopaedic diagnostics, it's just that most of the orthopaedics clinicians I've had contact with so far in the curriculum have really come across as jerks
12. Cardiology - spring, week 11 - I love cardiology! I really enjoyed our 4 intensive weeks of cardiac medicine this past spring, and although cardiology is a required senior rotation, I really wanted to get it as a junior too for more experience (and so I don't forget everything I learned as a sophomore before I'm a senior)
What rotations didn't I get?
I was really bummed to not get neurology, until I realized that no one got neurology - I think they cancelled it as a junior rotation. I can take it as a senior.
I wanted complementary & alternative medicine, and was disappointed to not have that on my schedule, but it looks like they only accepted 9 students for the entire year. That was a rotation I wanted more because I think it would be good to learn than because I'm interested in it. I'm taking the elective complementary medicine class this fall, anyway.
I didn't realize that I'd ranked dermatology #6/25 for my spring electives, but apparently I did... and didn't get it. Not too sad about that one, since I'm not sure why I ranked it so high to begin with.
Advanced surgical techniques - a rotation that sounded really cool but probably wouldn't be that applicable to the type of practice I want to do (things like laparoscopy, laser surgery, cryosurgery, etc.).
Spanish for Veterinarians - I don't like the instructor so I ranked this pretty low, plus I already own some good resources for translating vet med into Spanish.
Food animal / equine / zoo med / exotics / lab animal / wildlife rotations or more independent study - these all went at the way bottom of my ranking lists, and good riddance!
So, all in all, I think that I pretty much got what I wanted. Of the rotations I wanted and didn't get, there's not much of that that I won't get as a senior anyway, so no worries.
Monday, June 14, 2010
3 days off!
I'm currently halfway through my 6 weeks of summer employment at Giant Veterinary Corporation (GVC). And, today is the second day of my THREE DAYS OFF IN A ROW!
Overall, I'm much happier at GVC this year. All but one of the staff members that I disliked last year has since moved on, and they've all been replaced with much nicer, hardworking, and responsible people. There are two new doctors, both of whom I like, and the doctor I wasn't super fond of last year is much better this year. My favorite doctor unfortunately moved to a different hospital location about a week ago.
I'm getting better hours. The office manager this year actually seems to care about my preferences for days off and desired shifts. The first week, I worked 5 medium days, then 4 long days the second week, and 2 short and 3 long days this last week. I'd much prefer to work 4 long days than 5 days, since that cuts my commute down to 8 hours a week instead of 10. (In reality, under ideal circumstances I can make the drive in 42-45 minutes; during morning or evening traffic, or in bad weather, it takes 55-60 minutes).
So this coming week, I'm working Wednesday through Saturday. It is so AWESOME to have had yesterday, today, and tomorrow off. Last week was really a killer - I worked 12-8 on Tuesday, 9-2 on Wednesday, 8-5 on Thursday, 9-6 on Friday, and 8-6 on Saturday. We were really busy, so I mostly got a 20-30 minute lunch break rather than a full hour, and had to work late at least a couple days. Saturday was really tough - Saturdays are the busiest day of the week, plus we had a relief doctor who we weren't used to working with, plus it was my longest day and my 5th day of work in a row.
Yesterday, we got up early for church, which was followed by a book sale and ice cream social. I only bought 8 books, which I am pretty sure is less than the number of books we donated to the sale, so we'll count that as a win? We had a little Arby's for lunch, then CLH practiced for a few minutes while I worked on some cross-stitch. We drove to Westminster to meet a friend to see Iron Man 2 ($8 for a matinee: EIGHT DOLLARS!), then to Boulder for a chamber choir concert. Headed home and watched an episode of The Office on DVD, then time for bed.
I slept 13+ hours last night (woke up at noon today) and I think I really needed it. I sure felt a lot better afterward. I forgot during the last year how exhausting it is to work as a technician/nurse. And no, it's not just that I am working 40 hours a week instead of sitting on my butt in class for 30 hours a week (although that's part of it). It's really physically exhausting. I come home every day with new bruises and scratches. My neck and back and feet and legs hurt from walking dogs, carrying dogs, lifting dogs, restraining dogs, being kicked and scratched by dogs, etc. I know that working as a vet is going to be exhausting, too, but I think that will be more mental exhaustion than physical - I won't be the one getting dogs in and out of kennels, holding them down when they don't want to sit still, etc.
Working at GVC has given me an interesting opportunity to reflect on what my first years as a DVM will be like. Most of the vets I'm working with are recent (2008 or 2009) graduates and sometimes seem like they are still getting the hang of things. I'm sure it will be a difficult transition to go from the role of "technician" to "doctor" - I'm so used to doing the tech stuff (restraint, running labwork, cleaning, etc.) that it will probably be a little hard to let go of those things and focus on my doctor duties (which, strictly speaking, are: diagnosis, prognosis, surgery, and prescribing drugs). No, it's not black and white, and there are plenty of times when the doctor needs to help draw blood or administer premeds before anesthesia or whatever, but I'll have to learn how to step back from being intimately involved in all the tiny details of treating every animal.
Anyway, back to today: had some "lunch" (if you wake up at noon, is your 1pm meal still called lunch?), did some grocery shopping and checked out "The Blind Side" from Redbox, made a blackberry cream cheese pie (which I'm sure will look JUST like the picture). Played some Farmville and got caught up on Facebook. Made some cheesy potatoes in time for a "European style" (aka late) dinner.
Plans for tomorrow include: sleeping in, maybe going shopping for some running shoes, and getting my brain back in gear so I can make up some flash cards for important things I need to know as a junior in the fall.
Want some more random information about my job at GVC?
We had a staff meeting (excuse me, "team" meeting) last Thursday. "Lunch" (by which I mean chocolate covered donuts and a fruit tray) was provided. However, no important information was.
The upper management people at GVC are doing a much better job this year of getting vet students integrated into their hospitals. They have been in touch with us by email, held a "fun group bowling event!" a couple weeks ago (I actually bowled a 118 [withOUT bumpers] to win the second game), and are taking everybody to a baseball game in July (I'll be done working there and out in Massachusetts already).
All the staff and doctors from my hospital are going to a Rockies game (baseball) on Sunday (me too!). I hope it will be fun.
I've gotten to see some cool stuff, including: a Meibomian cyst, a descemetocele, a gastropexy, an aural hematoma repair, some dental extractions, an anal gland abscess, tons of vomiting/diarrhea patients (I'm pretty sure Saturday was National Dogs-With-Diarrhea Day)... other neat stuff that I can't remember at the moment. One of the doctors has decided that I should be the one who gets to catheterize every male dog under anesthesia from whom we need a urine sample. Lucky me.
My Spanish veterinary vocabulary is terribly out of practice, so I retrieved my copy of "Spanish Terminology for the Veterinary Team" from upstairs and brought it to the clinic. I also printed out a copy of my awesome list of translations of veterinary terms into Spanish.
I felt almost like partially a real doctor in a few years, when one of the doctors needed a surgery reference to look at before a complicated surgery, and I offered to bring in my snazzy new edition of Fossum. I even brushed up on the various surgical techniques that morning.
In my random moments of free time, when I have nothing better to do, I've spent some time acquainting myself with my 5 or so new reference texts, by looking up additional info on stuff I've seen at work that I don't know much about.
And that's about all I can think of about GVC at the moment!
Overall, I'm much happier at GVC this year. All but one of the staff members that I disliked last year has since moved on, and they've all been replaced with much nicer, hardworking, and responsible people. There are two new doctors, both of whom I like, and the doctor I wasn't super fond of last year is much better this year. My favorite doctor unfortunately moved to a different hospital location about a week ago.
I'm getting better hours. The office manager this year actually seems to care about my preferences for days off and desired shifts. The first week, I worked 5 medium days, then 4 long days the second week, and 2 short and 3 long days this last week. I'd much prefer to work 4 long days than 5 days, since that cuts my commute down to 8 hours a week instead of 10. (In reality, under ideal circumstances I can make the drive in 42-45 minutes; during morning or evening traffic, or in bad weather, it takes 55-60 minutes).
So this coming week, I'm working Wednesday through Saturday. It is so AWESOME to have had yesterday, today, and tomorrow off. Last week was really a killer - I worked 12-8 on Tuesday, 9-2 on Wednesday, 8-5 on Thursday, 9-6 on Friday, and 8-6 on Saturday. We were really busy, so I mostly got a 20-30 minute lunch break rather than a full hour, and had to work late at least a couple days. Saturday was really tough - Saturdays are the busiest day of the week, plus we had a relief doctor who we weren't used to working with, plus it was my longest day and my 5th day of work in a row.
Yesterday, we got up early for church, which was followed by a book sale and ice cream social. I only bought 8 books, which I am pretty sure is less than the number of books we donated to the sale, so we'll count that as a win? We had a little Arby's for lunch, then CLH practiced for a few minutes while I worked on some cross-stitch. We drove to Westminster to meet a friend to see Iron Man 2 ($8 for a matinee: EIGHT DOLLARS!), then to Boulder for a chamber choir concert. Headed home and watched an episode of The Office on DVD, then time for bed.
I slept 13+ hours last night (woke up at noon today) and I think I really needed it. I sure felt a lot better afterward. I forgot during the last year how exhausting it is to work as a technician/nurse. And no, it's not just that I am working 40 hours a week instead of sitting on my butt in class for 30 hours a week (although that's part of it). It's really physically exhausting. I come home every day with new bruises and scratches. My neck and back and feet and legs hurt from walking dogs, carrying dogs, lifting dogs, restraining dogs, being kicked and scratched by dogs, etc. I know that working as a vet is going to be exhausting, too, but I think that will be more mental exhaustion than physical - I won't be the one getting dogs in and out of kennels, holding them down when they don't want to sit still, etc.
Working at GVC has given me an interesting opportunity to reflect on what my first years as a DVM will be like. Most of the vets I'm working with are recent (2008 or 2009) graduates and sometimes seem like they are still getting the hang of things. I'm sure it will be a difficult transition to go from the role of "technician" to "doctor" - I'm so used to doing the tech stuff (restraint, running labwork, cleaning, etc.) that it will probably be a little hard to let go of those things and focus on my doctor duties (which, strictly speaking, are: diagnosis, prognosis, surgery, and prescribing drugs). No, it's not black and white, and there are plenty of times when the doctor needs to help draw blood or administer premeds before anesthesia or whatever, but I'll have to learn how to step back from being intimately involved in all the tiny details of treating every animal.
Anyway, back to today: had some "lunch" (if you wake up at noon, is your 1pm meal still called lunch?), did some grocery shopping and checked out "The Blind Side" from Redbox, made a blackberry cream cheese pie (which I'm sure will look JUST like the picture). Played some Farmville and got caught up on Facebook. Made some cheesy potatoes in time for a "European style" (aka late) dinner.
Plans for tomorrow include: sleeping in, maybe going shopping for some running shoes, and getting my brain back in gear so I can make up some flash cards for important things I need to know as a junior in the fall.
Want some more random information about my job at GVC?
We had a staff meeting (excuse me, "team" meeting) last Thursday. "Lunch" (by which I mean chocolate covered donuts and a fruit tray) was provided. However, no important information was.
The upper management people at GVC are doing a much better job this year of getting vet students integrated into their hospitals. They have been in touch with us by email, held a "fun group bowling event!" a couple weeks ago (I actually bowled a 118 [withOUT bumpers] to win the second game), and are taking everybody to a baseball game in July (I'll be done working there and out in Massachusetts already).
All the staff and doctors from my hospital are going to a Rockies game (baseball) on Sunday (me too!). I hope it will be fun.
I've gotten to see some cool stuff, including: a Meibomian cyst, a descemetocele, a gastropexy, an aural hematoma repair, some dental extractions, an anal gland abscess, tons of vomiting/diarrhea patients (I'm pretty sure Saturday was National Dogs-With-Diarrhea Day)... other neat stuff that I can't remember at the moment. One of the doctors has decided that I should be the one who gets to catheterize every male dog under anesthesia from whom we need a urine sample. Lucky me.
My Spanish veterinary vocabulary is terribly out of practice, so I retrieved my copy of "Spanish Terminology for the Veterinary Team" from upstairs and brought it to the clinic. I also printed out a copy of my awesome list of translations of veterinary terms into Spanish.
I felt almost like partially a real doctor in a few years, when one of the doctors needed a surgery reference to look at before a complicated surgery, and I offered to bring in my snazzy new edition of Fossum. I even brushed up on the various surgical techniques that morning.
In my random moments of free time, when I have nothing better to do, I've spent some time acquainting myself with my 5 or so new reference texts, by looking up additional info on stuff I've seen at work that I don't know much about.
And that's about all I can think of about GVC at the moment!
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