Well, I get to tour a crematorium at 8 am.
Beat that.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Music nerdiness is...
...watching a commercial for a video game and immediately realizing the background music is 'Thaxted.'
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
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.)
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.)
Client Communication Rotation = Fight Club?
The first rule of Client Communication rotation is: You don't talk about Client Communication rotation.**
The second rule of Client Communication rotation... well, you get the picture.
I am pleased to announce that I have thus far survived 40% of this semester's much-dreaded week-long Client Communication Skills (CCS) rotation!
(trumpets sound)
Now, let's be honest.
As much as I would like to be able to commiserate with my being-videotaped-impaired, communication-phobic, distressed and tearful classmates with the misfortune to experience this rotation before me, I would be lying if I told you that my rotation so far has been an absolutely fantastic experience.
The truth is out. Don't tell my friends, or I won't have any.
I think I approached CCS with the following attitude:
"I am going to go into this rotation being able to say that I came in trying to keep a positive attitude, but I am really not going to have a good time."
But.... the things we've done so far have been really beneficial.
(Really, I don't mean to sound so astonished. I'm truly excited that this hasn't turned out to be an absolute waste of 20 hours of my time.)
Yesterday we did some semi-hokey stuff, talking about feelings, what we did over the summer, how to ask open-ended questions and let your clients know that you're empathizing with them.
(Oh, and the instructor started off the week by saying "Good morning" to the class of 25 students repeatedly until she got a satisfactory chorus of "Good morning"s in return. Talk about a surefire way to come off as condescending and make your students feel like 8 year olds. Thankfully, things went uphill from there.)
Today was the first of two days of "simulated client interactions." The vet school hires actors to come in and portray clients bringing in their dog, cat, horse, or (if you're unlucky) hedgehog to see us students. The actors also work with the state's medical school, doing the same thing pretending to be actual medical patients so the med students can practice communication and history-taking.
Let me tell you, these actors are amazingly good. Invariably, in each of the 5 simulations it was a matter of moments before everybody forgot that the "client" wasn't really some person bringing in a sick pet.
We were divided into 5 groups of 5 students. Each small group had a "coach" (all were vets, two from the vet school and three from private practices). Some of the newer coaches got their own coaches who were coaching them on how to coach us.
Each student got 45 minutes for their simulated interaction:
-- In the first 5 minutes, the interviewing student got to find out what the case was about (owner's name, pet's name, breed, age, and the apparent reason for the visit [wellness exam, behavioral problem, medical problem, etc.]). Among the group of students, we discussed things that may come up during the interview, what the interviewing student's objectives were, how they were going to approach certain subjects, etc.
-- The next 15 minutes comprised the actual interview. The client was seated in the exam room (with 1 or 2 coaches in there too). The other 4 students were in the observation room next to the exam room, which has a one-way mirror looking in on the exam room. The student entered the room, introduced herself, and started the interview. You got to pause, take breaks, or rewind if you needed a minute to gather your thoughts, needed some advice from your coach, or realized that something didn't go well and you had something you wanted to try again.
-- The next 20 minutes were "debriefing" -- first the interviewing student discusses how she felt the interview went. Then the 4 observing students take turns critiquing different facets of the interview technique (initiation, gathering information, logical flow, etc.). Then the actor/client gives their feedback on how they felt as the one in the conversation, what they liked and didn't etc.
-- The last 5 mninutes are a discussion of what everybody learned from the case.
**The Fight Club rules (I named them that, not the rotation instructors) mean that we are bound by the honor code (and it's even extra-official, since they made us sign something) to not discuss the simulated case scenarios with anybody who hasn't taken the rotation yet. And that's with good reason -- as they point out, the learning experience is a lot less effective if you know ahead of time what sort of situation you're getting into, what hidden information is there for you to discover if you make your client feel comfortable enough to open up to you, etc.
I ended up going last among my group of 5 -- not really by choice, but the first 3 people kept volunteering to go next, then the last person and I flipped a coin to see who would go 4th and 5th.
It was a very surreal experience. During the past few weeks when I've been thinking ahead to upcoming rotations and remembering that I had CCS during week 6, I'd been getting progressively more nervous about it. During our initial Pet Hospice volunteer training during fall semester freshman year, we had a similar training session where we role-played with actor clients about how to talk about their ill pet, how to start conversations about quality of life and euthanasia, etc. -- and that experience was pretty awkward.
But I was surprised when I showed up this morning and really didn't feel that anxious about the whole thing. Sure, I didn't want to make a fool of myself, but everyone in my group was very supportive of each other and good at giving plenty of positive feedback along with a few suggestions for improvement. Yesterday as the instructors discussed today's exercise, they were very clear about the fact that none of our grade for this rotation comes from how well we perform in the simulated interactions -- our grade is all about a reflective paper we write, and how well we are able to analyze what we did well, what needs improvement, where our strengths are, phrasing that sounded good, moments that felt awkward and how they could be made more comfortable, etc. That really took the pressure off and made me feel like if I totally got tongue-tied or off-track or distracted during my simulated interview, it would all be ok.
CCS really has a terrible reputation among the upper-level vet students, and I don't think that's deserved. I know that some people really have a problem with the more "touchy-feely" style of communication, for whatever reason, but I think the next 3 days just might make a believer out of me... stay tuned!
P.S. If you have read this entire post, holy cow, I'm impressed! Way to be a dedicated reader! Here's hoping you find my rantings, ramblings, and reflections interesting and not just completely self-absorbed...
The second rule of Client Communication rotation... well, you get the picture.
I am pleased to announce that I have thus far survived 40% of this semester's much-dreaded week-long Client Communication Skills (CCS) rotation!
(trumpets sound)
Now, let's be honest.
As much as I would like to be able to commiserate with my being-videotaped-impaired, communication-phobic, distressed and tearful classmates with the misfortune to experience this rotation before me, I would be lying if I told you that my rotation so far has been an absolutely fantastic experience.
The truth is out. Don't tell my friends, or I won't have any.
I think I approached CCS with the following attitude:
"I am going to go into this rotation being able to say that I came in trying to keep a positive attitude, but I am really not going to have a good time."
But.... the things we've done so far have been really beneficial.
(Really, I don't mean to sound so astonished. I'm truly excited that this hasn't turned out to be an absolute waste of 20 hours of my time.)
Yesterday we did some semi-hokey stuff, talking about feelings, what we did over the summer, how to ask open-ended questions and let your clients know that you're empathizing with them.
(Oh, and the instructor started off the week by saying "Good morning" to the class of 25 students repeatedly until she got a satisfactory chorus of "Good morning"s in return. Talk about a surefire way to come off as condescending and make your students feel like 8 year olds. Thankfully, things went uphill from there.)
Today was the first of two days of "simulated client interactions." The vet school hires actors to come in and portray clients bringing in their dog, cat, horse, or (if you're unlucky) hedgehog to see us students. The actors also work with the state's medical school, doing the same thing pretending to be actual medical patients so the med students can practice communication and history-taking.
Let me tell you, these actors are amazingly good. Invariably, in each of the 5 simulations it was a matter of moments before everybody forgot that the "client" wasn't really some person bringing in a sick pet.
We were divided into 5 groups of 5 students. Each small group had a "coach" (all were vets, two from the vet school and three from private practices). Some of the newer coaches got their own coaches who were coaching them on how to coach us.
Each student got 45 minutes for their simulated interaction:
-- In the first 5 minutes, the interviewing student got to find out what the case was about (owner's name, pet's name, breed, age, and the apparent reason for the visit [wellness exam, behavioral problem, medical problem, etc.]). Among the group of students, we discussed things that may come up during the interview, what the interviewing student's objectives were, how they were going to approach certain subjects, etc.
-- The next 15 minutes comprised the actual interview. The client was seated in the exam room (with 1 or 2 coaches in there too). The other 4 students were in the observation room next to the exam room, which has a one-way mirror looking in on the exam room. The student entered the room, introduced herself, and started the interview. You got to pause, take breaks, or rewind if you needed a minute to gather your thoughts, needed some advice from your coach, or realized that something didn't go well and you had something you wanted to try again.
-- The next 20 minutes were "debriefing" -- first the interviewing student discusses how she felt the interview went. Then the 4 observing students take turns critiquing different facets of the interview technique (initiation, gathering information, logical flow, etc.). Then the actor/client gives their feedback on how they felt as the one in the conversation, what they liked and didn't etc.
-- The last 5 mninutes are a discussion of what everybody learned from the case.
**The Fight Club rules (I named them that, not the rotation instructors) mean that we are bound by the honor code (and it's even extra-official, since they made us sign something) to not discuss the simulated case scenarios with anybody who hasn't taken the rotation yet. And that's with good reason -- as they point out, the learning experience is a lot less effective if you know ahead of time what sort of situation you're getting into, what hidden information is there for you to discover if you make your client feel comfortable enough to open up to you, etc.
I ended up going last among my group of 5 -- not really by choice, but the first 3 people kept volunteering to go next, then the last person and I flipped a coin to see who would go 4th and 5th.
It was a very surreal experience. During the past few weeks when I've been thinking ahead to upcoming rotations and remembering that I had CCS during week 6, I'd been getting progressively more nervous about it. During our initial Pet Hospice volunteer training during fall semester freshman year, we had a similar training session where we role-played with actor clients about how to talk about their ill pet, how to start conversations about quality of life and euthanasia, etc. -- and that experience was pretty awkward.
But I was surprised when I showed up this morning and really didn't feel that anxious about the whole thing. Sure, I didn't want to make a fool of myself, but everyone in my group was very supportive of each other and good at giving plenty of positive feedback along with a few suggestions for improvement. Yesterday as the instructors discussed today's exercise, they were very clear about the fact that none of our grade for this rotation comes from how well we perform in the simulated interactions -- our grade is all about a reflective paper we write, and how well we are able to analyze what we did well, what needs improvement, where our strengths are, phrasing that sounded good, moments that felt awkward and how they could be made more comfortable, etc. That really took the pressure off and made me feel like if I totally got tongue-tied or off-track or distracted during my simulated interview, it would all be ok.
CCS really has a terrible reputation among the upper-level vet students, and I don't think that's deserved. I know that some people really have a problem with the more "touchy-feely" style of communication, for whatever reason, but I think the next 3 days just might make a believer out of me... stay tuned!
P.S. If you have read this entire post, holy cow, I'm impressed! Way to be a dedicated reader! Here's hoping you find my rantings, ramblings, and reflections interesting and not just completely self-absorbed...
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Capstone: Success!
Well, 5 weeks into the semester, we finally have (I think) our final capstone grades.
On the in-class portion, I got 85.68%. The average was 78.3.
On the open-book portion, I got 91.57%. The average was 86.5
I'm satisfied though not ecstatic about my performance. I'd hoped to get a little higher than a 91 on the open-book part -- after all, it's open-book. (Actually, one person failed that part, and I'm not entirely sure how that's possible.)
However, I've found that the further I get into vet school, the lower my standards are, and I'm okay with that. Would I have been thrilled with another 94 or 95% like I got on last year's capstone? Of course. I'm actually pretty happy with my 85 on the in-class part -- I figure that if I need a 70% to pass the NAVLE next year, then if I can keep up my retention of approximately 85% of what I learn before then, I should be set to pass with an easy margin.
Academics just seem so much less important this year. We're spending more time on rotations every week than we are in classes, and we're treating actual patients, talking to actual clients, assisting in actual surgeries, and completing actual medical records. It feels like what we do in the morning is the reason we come to school every day, and the 2-4 hours of class each afternoon are just sort of an add-on. I must say with only 3 (non-elective) courses, it's a whole lot easier to keep track of exam dates and homework assignment due dates.
There's also more of a sense of accomplishment with having a different rotation every week -- rather than waiting an entire semester (or 8 weeks, for our short classes) to finish a course, you feel every Friday like you've completed another whole class (i.e. whatever rotation you finished). It's nice.
On the in-class portion, I got 85.68%. The average was 78.3.
On the open-book portion, I got 91.57%. The average was 86.5
I'm satisfied though not ecstatic about my performance. I'd hoped to get a little higher than a 91 on the open-book part -- after all, it's open-book. (Actually, one person failed that part, and I'm not entirely sure how that's possible.)
However, I've found that the further I get into vet school, the lower my standards are, and I'm okay with that. Would I have been thrilled with another 94 or 95% like I got on last year's capstone? Of course. I'm actually pretty happy with my 85 on the in-class part -- I figure that if I need a 70% to pass the NAVLE next year, then if I can keep up my retention of approximately 85% of what I learn before then, I should be set to pass with an easy margin.
Academics just seem so much less important this year. We're spending more time on rotations every week than we are in classes, and we're treating actual patients, talking to actual clients, assisting in actual surgeries, and completing actual medical records. It feels like what we do in the morning is the reason we come to school every day, and the 2-4 hours of class each afternoon are just sort of an add-on. I must say with only 3 (non-elective) courses, it's a whole lot easier to keep track of exam dates and homework assignment due dates.
There's also more of a sense of accomplishment with having a different rotation every week -- rather than waiting an entire semester (or 8 weeks, for our short classes) to finish a course, you feel every Friday like you've completed another whole class (i.e. whatever rotation you finished). It's nice.
Small animal procedures
All in all, we got to do some really neat stuff on Small Animal Procedures lab this week (smelly dripping cadavers aside). Procedures we practiced included:
- jugular and saphenous vein cutdowns
- CSF tap from the cisterna magna
- bone marrow aspirate
- chest tube placement
- transtracheal wash
- tracheostomy
- esophagostomy tube placement
- arthrocentesis (carpus, tarsus, and stifle)
- abdominocentesis
- soft padded and Robert-Jones bandage placement
- splint placement
- cystocentesis
- urinary catheter placement
- digital rectal exams
- digital vaginal exams
- anal sac expression and infusion
- dental probing, charting, scaling, and polishing
- dental extractions (simple and complicated)
Now, there are a bunch of those things that I would be pretty reluctant to do as a private practice vet after graduation (namely, CSF taps, bone marrow aspiration, or a transtracheal wash). But it was still pretty cool to get to practice them, and not have to worry about messing up on the first try.
(Side note: The instructors demonstrated each technique first, then we all split up to practice on our various cadavers. The CCU resident who demo'd chest tube placements started out by saying "A lot of practitioners are leery about doing chest tubes, but I don't get it. They're not actually that hard." About 2 minutes later, as he was actually showing us how to place the chest tube [basically punching a hole through the side of the chest into the chest cavity, to let air or fluid out], he cautioned us "Don't push too hard, or you'll stab it through the heart and nail your patient to the table." Gee, I wonder why anybody would be reluctant to place a chest tube...)
Next week's rotation is Client Communication Skills, which I can safely say I have not been eagerly anticipating. Several of my friends were among the twenty or so students on CCS this past week, and I heard multiple reports of students experiencing extreme distress +/- tears at various points during the 20 hours in the rotation. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it, but I'm fearful that it will just be hokey and embarassing. But come on, who doesn't like to watch themselves getting yelled at by a pretend client on videotape with their peers watching? And then get to take the videotape home so you can watch it over and over and write a 4-6 page paper about what you need to improve??
- jugular and saphenous vein cutdowns
- CSF tap from the cisterna magna
- bone marrow aspirate
- chest tube placement
- transtracheal wash
- tracheostomy
- esophagostomy tube placement
- arthrocentesis (carpus, tarsus, and stifle)
- abdominocentesis
- soft padded and Robert-Jones bandage placement
- splint placement
- cystocentesis
- urinary catheter placement
- digital rectal exams
- digital vaginal exams
- anal sac expression and infusion
- dental probing, charting, scaling, and polishing
- dental extractions (simple and complicated)
Now, there are a bunch of those things that I would be pretty reluctant to do as a private practice vet after graduation (namely, CSF taps, bone marrow aspiration, or a transtracheal wash). But it was still pretty cool to get to practice them, and not have to worry about messing up on the first try.
(Side note: The instructors demonstrated each technique first, then we all split up to practice on our various cadavers. The CCU resident who demo'd chest tube placements started out by saying "A lot of practitioners are leery about doing chest tubes, but I don't get it. They're not actually that hard." About 2 minutes later, as he was actually showing us how to place the chest tube [basically punching a hole through the side of the chest into the chest cavity, to let air or fluid out], he cautioned us "Don't push too hard, or you'll stab it through the heart and nail your patient to the table." Gee, I wonder why anybody would be reluctant to place a chest tube...)
Next week's rotation is Client Communication Skills, which I can safely say I have not been eagerly anticipating. Several of my friends were among the twenty or so students on CCS this past week, and I heard multiple reports of students experiencing extreme distress +/- tears at various points during the 20 hours in the rotation. I'm trying to keep a positive attitude about it, but I'm fearful that it will just be hokey and embarassing. But come on, who doesn't like to watch themselves getting yelled at by a pretend client on videotape with their peers watching? And then get to take the videotape home so you can watch it over and over and write a 4-6 page paper about what you need to improve??
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
