Welcome to VCA ARECA surgery department! We are very excited to have you visit us for your externship. We want you to
learn, grow and participate in daily life as a surgeon, resident, or intern. With this in mind we have listed a few expectations
while on our service. Most importantly, we want you to enjoy your time with us, so please let us know if you have any special
needs or skills that you wish to improve. Thank you and see you soon!
Hours:
• Arrive no later than 7am for your first day
• On future days you can check with surgery intern, rotating intern and/or resident on duty to see if you need to come earlier
or later depending on in-patients and timing of morning rounds
Attire:
• Scrubs or professional attire- if you choose to wear professional attire please ensure that you have scrubs available so
that you can scrub into surgery
Hands on Experience in the Surgery Service
• Physical and orthopedic examination of patients
• Scrub into and assist in orthopedic and soft tissue surgical procedures
• Assist technicians in IV catheter placement and surgical prep as needed
• Assist in bandage placement for wound management, soft tissue and orthopedic patients
• If able (radiation badge??) help technicians with radiographs to understand proper positioning and techniques for good
quality/diagnostic radiographs
• Prior to coming on service come up with a list of 3-5 things (ortho exam, neuro exam, basic fractures, GI surgery...) that you
would like to review and work on while on your externship and we will try to discuss on slow time or make sure to focus
on during cases
Surgery Service Expectations and Case Responsibility:
• General
» Learn WoofWare (medical record) basics to help input SOAPs or communications to help with paperwork
» Learn to critically evaluate patient physical and orthopedic examination findings as well as diagnostics
including laboratory findings and imaging findings
• Each morning
» In the morning prior to rounds, evaluate surgical patients and transfers with surgery resident, surgery intern and rotating
intern, discuss case, changes to treatment sheet and SOAP patients
» In morning rounds be prepared to discuss in-house patients and transfers, potentially present the cases in rounds and
discuss the case with senior clinicians
» Read up on consults for the day (MPL, TPLO, shunts, fractures....) to be prepared to discuss case and what options
are available to treat patient
• During the day
» Participate in patient examination, consultation and record keeping and be prepared to discuss case findings,
diagnostics and treatment plans
» Participate and scrub into surgeries and non-surgical procedures
• Prior to leaving for the evening
» Check treatment sheets before leaving to make sure dosing of all medications is correct and treatment sheets are signed.
If you have any concerns bring to surgery intern, resident or surgeon to evaluate.
» Help surgery resident, surgery intern and rotating intern with any pending paperwork or tasks
(SOAPs, discharges, treatment sheets...)
» Read about consultations for the following day and review referring vet records and diagnostics
» Read up on surgeries for the next day to be prepared on surgical approach, anatomy, techniques
» Become familiar with postoperative care of patients to know what medications/treatments we will use for patients
and why (IV fluids, pain medications, GI protectants, antibiotics if indicated...)