Hi there; Birdie here!
So the thing I forgot about having my emergency rotation the last couple of weeks is that it meant I was on emergency over Easter weekend. I mean, when I got the schedule I knew Friday was a holiday, but I was not prepared for Saturday...but that's getting ahead of myself.
Emergency works like most other rotations: when a student gets called for a case, we go up and get the history. Then we bring the animal back, do our physical, let the clinician do a quick physical, and figure out what we're doing next. Unlike oncology and other rotations, there is never any idea what the case will be the day before, obviously. Also unlike other rotations (except possibly medicine), we get critical patients that get taken back to ICU by one student while another student takes the history. And of course, on emergency we definitely don't get weekends off. But we do have two days off each week, which are possibly better than weekends off on other rotations because you actually don't need to come in, even to take care of a patient in the hospital or to take transfers. Also, most days don't start work until 4:30pm, so that meant I had days to do things. I definitely used one of those days to go to the library. Our rotation was big enough that one student was on days during the week. Then on weekends, roughly half of us were on days (8am-5:30pm) and the other half on nights (4:30pm to midnight). The end times were largely theoretical; even once we stopped taking cases, we still had to write up discharge summaries, which could take hours. There are no rounds in emergency, either. The caseload is majorly variable; some days we had basically nothing and some days the only reason I had time to eat was because someone brought food into the treatment room and I could snack while working on paperwork for my cases.
I never personally dealt with the really critical cases. We had two dogs hit by cars during my shifts, and for both of them I ended up getting the case that came in right before that, so I had to sit with that patient and try to do my physical alone while everyone else worked to stabilize the critical patient. I did have a possible GDV that I sent back to ICU (it turned out to be barely bloated) and a snakebite case that I sent back in case it needed immediate stabilization--both of which I was the history-taker for, and neither of which needed much in the way of stabilization anyway.
I really do love working with the clients. I'd always thought I would miss that if I decide to specialize, but now that I've actually done it it's not just a theoretical liking. We had one patient, a cat, hospitalized for the entire Easter weekend, where I made friends with the owner. I happened to be on days that entire weekend as well as the one who admitted the cat, so I stayed involved in that case. One day I stayed late so that the owner could visit. She told me that I really helped calm her and made a good impression of our hospital (she'd never been here before), so that makes me feel good about myself. At least I can actually do the client communication part of my job, and someone thinks I'm good at it.
Other parts, I'm not as good at. It was really only my second rotation at school, but I still felt overwhelmed by how much I didn't know, especially when it was really busy. One day I forgot to update my discharge at the end of the day, which was "inappropriate"--and got called as such. When we did a neuro exam, the clinician explicitly did not ask which nerves each reflex tests--but I barely remembered what reflexes I was supposed to test, anyway. I also got snapped at for not knowing what to do when I cleaned Isolation (even after explicitly asking for help because I didn't know what I was doing--and when I later got told that it isn't even my job, anyway). And that's not even mentioning all the diagnoses I didn't get and drugs I didn't have dosages for. I'm recording this in the hopes of progress--I'm not competent yet, but I will be. I'm still learning.
Saturday was the craziest of all. There was one other day I was on cases for almost as much time, but only on the day before Easter did I personally have four different cases (okay, technically two of them were the same suspected toxicity, from the same owner) and my two classmates on with me have at least three each. And that's not even mentioning how many phone calls we kept fielding--everything from "my dog ate chocolate" to a scratch on an eye to the snakebite case that immediately came in. Luckily, some of the Medicine people stayed after taking transfers to help us with the huge influx of cases (it was a medicine student who did the physical on my snakebite dog). Other than anyone who stayed out of the goodness of their hearts, we only had two clinicians and three students. We were all running around like crazy dealing with something like a dozen cases all coming in at once, plus running more diagnostics on hospitalized patients. In the end, we got through it--but it was hugely stressful, with a lot happening all at once and me feeling like I had no clue how to help. And after the next shift started (that was a day shift, so the night students took over), we still had to write discharges. One of my classmates didn't leave his "day" shift until 9pm because he had to keep taking the phone calls no one else was available foor. That was definitely a defining moment for my decision that I do NOT want to do emergency work for my job.
I've kept up with my horseback riding, more or less. Off days on mergency gave me time to do that. Last week we did something really fun--a catch rider lesson. After warming up and riding a course of jumps once, we switched horses and rode it on each of the other four horses in the lesson. We stayed late (theoretically because no one had to go to school the next day, on Good Friday--I had to be at work at 8am, but I just rolled with it anyway) but it was totally worth it. I hope I get to play that game again. This week, the indoor arena had really hard footing since the tractor to drag it was broken, so we couldn't do much jumping. Instead, I got to learn a little about turns on the forehand and turns on the hind. Unfortunately, the horse I was on (Baby) is not very good at those turns. It was especially hard from a halt; she didn't want to move again! We did a fair approximation, though. I'd like to try again sometime. My instructor told me to remind her and I'll be able to try again on a horse who's better trained to it.
I'm so glad I'm done with emergency. I'm back in the classroom now for two weeks of electives--but that's a topic for another blog. After that I've got two rotations I've heard are tough (equine and surgery)--I'll try to record those as well, but at this point I have no idea what kind of time I'll have so I'm guessing none. Once I get through those, though, it'll be summer and I'll be away from school for three months on a combination of vacation and externships (slash "special topics," which is what school is calling the Live Oak Bank externship since it's not at a private practice). That's what I'm looking forward to most right now, and about as far into the future as I can think at this point.
Two rotations down...over a dozen to go.
Wednesday, March 30, 2016
Tuesday, March 22, 2016
When the Second Thing You Do on Clinics is...Vacation
Hi there; Birdie here!
I'm a little behind on blogging, since I'm now on my third rotation and just blogging about my second. I'll hopefully get a post up about this rotation later this week, but for now I'm going to write about my second two week block--vacation.
After my awesome oncology block, I had two weeks off--and no, I didn't use it to get a head start on VetPrep. I did a lot of reading, played some video games (especially with my little brother), but the reason I had this block as vacation is so I could travel. On March 5, I left for "Fabulous" Las Vegas. I was attending to recieve a leadership award, and part of the award was travel to the conference, including a stay at the Excalibur hotel. When I was scheduling my rotations (and, honestly, until about a week before the conference) I didn't know how much of the conference I needed to attend as an award recipient (it turned out to only be the first couple of days), and the whole 5-day conference was more than we're allowed to miss for any rotation.
Western Veterinary Conference is huge! When we first got access to the program, there were easily three speakers I was interested in at almost any time. Having gone to SAVMA symposium, though, I was used to that. What I wasn't expecting was the sheer size of it: three floors of the Mandalay Bay convention center, and an exhibit hall that just. kept. going. What first struck me when I walked in to the convention center (after far too long of wandering around and winding up at the shipping docks instead of the actual entrance, but that's another story...Google Maps does not know how to walk around Vegas) was that every advertisement on any wall or display was some veterinary product. That was when I knew that for 5 days, we veterinarians owned this place.
The exhibit hall was much bigger and fancier than at SAVMA--I guess when you're marketing to the people who can buy it on a large scale Right Now, you can pull out all the stops. There were a lot of companies offering surgical lights or kennels or other items distinctly for those in practice, but the same sorts of booths as at SAVMA were there too--just bigger. At least two different booths had espresso you could order (Hill's also had not-coffee; the hot chocolate with hazelnut was amazing and I wish I'd found it before the last day), and the "Gard Yard" (for NexGard) had a bucking flea you could ride, as well as T-shirts screen printed just for you in one of four designs. Some of the places saved their free backpacks or pillow pets for veterinarians, or even for those who made purchasing decisions for the practice. But I still wound up with a whole backpack (won in a plinko game from NutraMax) filled entirely with swag, including three free textbooks--one on nutrition, one on derm, and one differential guide. The huge hall was best traversed with another student, at least at first, when it felt like no one would want to talk to me since I'm still in school. But overall, it was definitely a great and memorable part of the conference.
Of course, the conference was way more than checking out new products and getting free swag in the exhibit hall. Being part of the small group of award winners who did so many things together, I got to know students at different vet schools and see some friends from other things I've gone to like VLE or the Fly-in. Several of us joiners who go around applying for things wind up attending a lot of the same things together. On Sunday night, we had a dinner meet-and-greet, and then several of us attended the Brian Regan show free at the conference. I've seen Brian Regan before, and some of his bits I could probably quote by heart, but he had some new stuff too and I enjoyed it. Plus, now the friends who went with me understand why I intentionally say "take luck" or refer to more than one box as "boxen." The next morning, after breakfast and introductions (in the form of introducing partners we'd been paired with the night before), we took a bus to the Oquendo Center, the hands on learning center WVC built. That place is awesome--we saw an ultrasound lab in progress, a rabbit anesthesia class with cadavers and live rabbits to intubate, the large animal area, and a surgery suite with rows of tables for vets to practice fracture repairs or other surgeries. They don't really offer anything for students (although there is a program for vet techs), but they do have a sort of introductory surgery basics class that I might be interested in taking when I start out. It's supposed to be an intensive weekend or so where you can get really comfortable and confident in surgery; I'm not sure how much surgery experience I'm going to get in clinics, but I'll definitely keep it in mind. On Tuesday, awards were presented at yet another breakfast and we took pictures--including one with the VLE 2014 alums who had won the award for our respective schools--there were a good number of us! Besides these award-recipient things, I also went to several lectures (maybe a dozen overall) on everything from service dogs to parvovirus to FLUTD to practice ownership.
Meeting people was one of the best parts of the conference. I got to hang out with friends from VLE and make new friends from other schools who recieved the same award. Some of us got drinks together and even went to the aquarium (rather small, but pretty cool--especially the "monsters of the deep" exhibit with preserved, dissected specimens from an eel to a penguin) on one of the last days. At a DVM students reception (which was kind of sparsely attended, though I found a good group to hang out with), I met a student from Australia who had come over with her dad, who is a veterinarian. I also networked with people in the exhibit hall. A leader at the company who made some of the equipment my summer research used has ties to Wisconsin and is helping me look for places to find an externship in the area.
I also attended the Lead with Your Strengths workshop with a Gallup strengths coach. It cost a bit extra (and will cost more when I get around to unlocking my full results...not thrilled about that) but I'm really glad I went. At first, it did not meet my expectations at all. When I took the quiz, I was expecting the one I had taken last year at authentichappiness.org, but this one was completely different. Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with positive statements, the test makes you choose between two statements that, often, aren't actually opposed at all. I got very annoyed with it, to be honest. It also has a time limit, theoreticaly, of 20 seconds per question...but I never hit that; I guess I read too fast. There were only 4 of us in the workshop, including me and Betsy Charles--I had really expected more. I learned a lot from it, but I struggled hard against it at the beginning. Part of it was because it didn't match my expectations at all, and part was because the "strengths" were not well defined (my "top 3" seem like facets of one thing, to me) and unlike at least two of the other three participants I never read the book or heard of these concepts before. It's an interesting concept, and I'd like to learn more about it. I'll have to actually read the book sometime. But I do feel like I got something out of our conversations, even if I still have a lot more to learn about this complicated system.
And the conference wasn't all I did in Vegas, either. I saw four different shows, besides Brian Regan. Le Reve (which I cannot pronounce right, the Canadian students assured me, but neither did the announcer at the show, so that's ok) at the Wynn was fantastic. It's similar to Cirque de Soleil but not the same company, and it takes place in a huge water stage. Different solid parts of the stage come up at different times, from the tree rising up for performers to dive off of to the multi-tiered fountain for the finale. There were acrobats, too, dropping in from high in the ceiling on silks or rings or swings. I'm so glad I got to see it. Apparently they change the show every six months, according to the hostess at dinner. You can't even see everything in one show just by seeing it once! For the rest, my dad joined me, meeting a friend of his in Vegas. He did the zipline downtown (I did not, becuase after making me leave and come back with a string for my glasses that didn't seem very secure anyway, they didn't have anywhere for me to leave my things--I don't know why they don't have lockers, they could make money off of that), though not the one where you go flat on your stomach. We had planned to do that one, but the time conflicted with our show, so we gave the tickets to a couple (who were just married...again! according to their T-shirts) as they went in to buy tickets. We saw two comedy magicians (Mac King and Adam London) and the musical Rock of Ages (which is a bit awkward to see with your dad, considering the major stripper subplot--not that you would know that from anything on their advertisements). I did my best to enjoy it anyway, and it was very well done, but...awkward. Although dinner that night, the buffet at the Rio, was easily the best meal of the trip.
So there you have it--definitely worth a post in itself, I'd say. Next time, I'll tell you about what it's like to work emergency for two weeks.
I'm a little behind on blogging, since I'm now on my third rotation and just blogging about my second. I'll hopefully get a post up about this rotation later this week, but for now I'm going to write about my second two week block--vacation.
After my awesome oncology block, I had two weeks off--and no, I didn't use it to get a head start on VetPrep. I did a lot of reading, played some video games (especially with my little brother), but the reason I had this block as vacation is so I could travel. On March 5, I left for "Fabulous" Las Vegas. I was attending to recieve a leadership award, and part of the award was travel to the conference, including a stay at the Excalibur hotel. When I was scheduling my rotations (and, honestly, until about a week before the conference) I didn't know how much of the conference I needed to attend as an award recipient (it turned out to only be the first couple of days), and the whole 5-day conference was more than we're allowed to miss for any rotation.
Western Veterinary Conference is huge! When we first got access to the program, there were easily three speakers I was interested in at almost any time. Having gone to SAVMA symposium, though, I was used to that. What I wasn't expecting was the sheer size of it: three floors of the Mandalay Bay convention center, and an exhibit hall that just. kept. going. What first struck me when I walked in to the convention center (after far too long of wandering around and winding up at the shipping docks instead of the actual entrance, but that's another story...Google Maps does not know how to walk around Vegas) was that every advertisement on any wall or display was some veterinary product. That was when I knew that for 5 days, we veterinarians owned this place.
The exhibit hall was much bigger and fancier than at SAVMA--I guess when you're marketing to the people who can buy it on a large scale Right Now, you can pull out all the stops. There were a lot of companies offering surgical lights or kennels or other items distinctly for those in practice, but the same sorts of booths as at SAVMA were there too--just bigger. At least two different booths had espresso you could order (Hill's also had not-coffee; the hot chocolate with hazelnut was amazing and I wish I'd found it before the last day), and the "Gard Yard" (for NexGard) had a bucking flea you could ride, as well as T-shirts screen printed just for you in one of four designs. Some of the places saved their free backpacks or pillow pets for veterinarians, or even for those who made purchasing decisions for the practice. But I still wound up with a whole backpack (won in a plinko game from NutraMax) filled entirely with swag, including three free textbooks--one on nutrition, one on derm, and one differential guide. The huge hall was best traversed with another student, at least at first, when it felt like no one would want to talk to me since I'm still in school. But overall, it was definitely a great and memorable part of the conference.
Of course, the conference was way more than checking out new products and getting free swag in the exhibit hall. Being part of the small group of award winners who did so many things together, I got to know students at different vet schools and see some friends from other things I've gone to like VLE or the Fly-in. Several of us joiners who go around applying for things wind up attending a lot of the same things together. On Sunday night, we had a dinner meet-and-greet, and then several of us attended the Brian Regan show free at the conference. I've seen Brian Regan before, and some of his bits I could probably quote by heart, but he had some new stuff too and I enjoyed it. Plus, now the friends who went with me understand why I intentionally say "take luck" or refer to more than one box as "boxen." The next morning, after breakfast and introductions (in the form of introducing partners we'd been paired with the night before), we took a bus to the Oquendo Center, the hands on learning center WVC built. That place is awesome--we saw an ultrasound lab in progress, a rabbit anesthesia class with cadavers and live rabbits to intubate, the large animal area, and a surgery suite with rows of tables for vets to practice fracture repairs or other surgeries. They don't really offer anything for students (although there is a program for vet techs), but they do have a sort of introductory surgery basics class that I might be interested in taking when I start out. It's supposed to be an intensive weekend or so where you can get really comfortable and confident in surgery; I'm not sure how much surgery experience I'm going to get in clinics, but I'll definitely keep it in mind. On Tuesday, awards were presented at yet another breakfast and we took pictures--including one with the VLE 2014 alums who had won the award for our respective schools--there were a good number of us! Besides these award-recipient things, I also went to several lectures (maybe a dozen overall) on everything from service dogs to parvovirus to FLUTD to practice ownership.
Meeting people was one of the best parts of the conference. I got to hang out with friends from VLE and make new friends from other schools who recieved the same award. Some of us got drinks together and even went to the aquarium (rather small, but pretty cool--especially the "monsters of the deep" exhibit with preserved, dissected specimens from an eel to a penguin) on one of the last days. At a DVM students reception (which was kind of sparsely attended, though I found a good group to hang out with), I met a student from Australia who had come over with her dad, who is a veterinarian. I also networked with people in the exhibit hall. A leader at the company who made some of the equipment my summer research used has ties to Wisconsin and is helping me look for places to find an externship in the area.
I also attended the Lead with Your Strengths workshop with a Gallup strengths coach. It cost a bit extra (and will cost more when I get around to unlocking my full results...not thrilled about that) but I'm really glad I went. At first, it did not meet my expectations at all. When I took the quiz, I was expecting the one I had taken last year at authentichappiness.org, but this one was completely different. Instead of agreeing or disagreeing with positive statements, the test makes you choose between two statements that, often, aren't actually opposed at all. I got very annoyed with it, to be honest. It also has a time limit, theoreticaly, of 20 seconds per question...but I never hit that; I guess I read too fast. There were only 4 of us in the workshop, including me and Betsy Charles--I had really expected more. I learned a lot from it, but I struggled hard against it at the beginning. Part of it was because it didn't match my expectations at all, and part was because the "strengths" were not well defined (my "top 3" seem like facets of one thing, to me) and unlike at least two of the other three participants I never read the book or heard of these concepts before. It's an interesting concept, and I'd like to learn more about it. I'll have to actually read the book sometime. But I do feel like I got something out of our conversations, even if I still have a lot more to learn about this complicated system.
And the conference wasn't all I did in Vegas, either. I saw four different shows, besides Brian Regan. Le Reve (which I cannot pronounce right, the Canadian students assured me, but neither did the announcer at the show, so that's ok) at the Wynn was fantastic. It's similar to Cirque de Soleil but not the same company, and it takes place in a huge water stage. Different solid parts of the stage come up at different times, from the tree rising up for performers to dive off of to the multi-tiered fountain for the finale. There were acrobats, too, dropping in from high in the ceiling on silks or rings or swings. I'm so glad I got to see it. Apparently they change the show every six months, according to the hostess at dinner. You can't even see everything in one show just by seeing it once! For the rest, my dad joined me, meeting a friend of his in Vegas. He did the zipline downtown (I did not, becuase after making me leave and come back with a string for my glasses that didn't seem very secure anyway, they didn't have anywhere for me to leave my things--I don't know why they don't have lockers, they could make money off of that), though not the one where you go flat on your stomach. We had planned to do that one, but the time conflicted with our show, so we gave the tickets to a couple (who were just married...again! according to their T-shirts) as they went in to buy tickets. We saw two comedy magicians (Mac King and Adam London) and the musical Rock of Ages (which is a bit awkward to see with your dad, considering the major stripper subplot--not that you would know that from anything on their advertisements). I did my best to enjoy it anyway, and it was very well done, but...awkward. Although dinner that night, the buffet at the Rio, was easily the best meal of the trip.
So there you have it--definitely worth a post in itself, I'd say. Next time, I'll tell you about what it's like to work emergency for two weeks.
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