Banfield Pet Hospital’s Veterinary Affairs team offers student research externship positions during their clinical rotation year. The Veterinary Affairs team is responsible for identifying opportunities to improve the quality of veterinary care provided in Banfield hospitals and developing and implementing systems to enact those improvements. This work is done primarily through analysis of data from the centralized electronic medical record (PetWare®) database, use of other internal and external information sources including other internal electronic reporting, record review, peer-reviewed literature, hospital team member and client surveys, subject matter expert consultations, and other veterinary and pet care industry partnerships. The work of the Veterinary Affairs team has led to evidence-based changes to practice policy, identification of new equipment and product needs, and development of hospital and client materials, to name a few.
The student extern will work on a project while also receiving training and mentorship from the Veterinary Affairs team and will be working at Banfield’s Central Team Support (national headquarters) in Vancouver, Washington (USA). The extern will have the opportunity to fully engage in projects that support Banfield’s Veterinary Medical Quality program, focusing on patient care and outcome(s). Duties may include (but are not limited to) literature reviews, medical record reviews, and analyses of pet population health data (e.g., descriptive statistics). Student projects will be based on Banfield practice priorities and needs at the time of the externship and student skillsets. Students with knowledge and interests in companion animal health, epidemiology/population health management, electronic health data, applied clinical research and veterinary medical quality will be given preference.
In addition to active participation in project and other team meetings, other major components of the externship include learning about corporate veterinary practice, career options outside of the clinical environment by meeting with veterinarians working on different teams within the Banfield organization and learning about their career paths, and other Mars Veterinary Health and Petcare business units. Externships close out with an oral presentation of project findings and recommendations to the Veterinary Affairs team.