While at the Veterinary Specialty Center of Seattle students will join case transfer rounds each morning as well as didactic house officer rounds on Tuesday mornings and grand rounds on Wednesday mornings.
On elective students will be scheduled to work with a single service each week of his or her rotation. Specific duties will vary per service and at the discretion of the overseeing doctor. Examples of common externship responsibilities: 1) Students will be asked to SOAP in-house patients and provide their assessments of patient condition and recommendations for further diagnostics or treatments and review these with the clinician of record. 2) Students will scrub in an assist in surgical procedures. 3) Students will examine new patients, discuss the case and then accompany senior doctors into the examination rooms to speak with clients. 4) Students will be asked to interpret blood work and imaging data reported during a patient's stay in the hospital and provide a modified assessment of the case and plan moving forward.
We are a 24 hr Emergency and Specialty Center with 3 surgeons (2 board certified, 1 practice limited), 4 internists (2 boarded, 2 practice limited), 3 neurologists (2 board certified, 1 practice limited), 3 criticalists (all board certified), 1 full time and 1 part time/contracting radiologist (both board certified), 1 part time/contracting cardiologist (board certified) and 11 internship trained emergency doctors.
We have 38 LVTs and 32 veterinary assistants distrubted throughout the various services within the hospital.
We have an onsite laboratory (microscopes for in house cytology, CBC, chemistry, blood gas, coagulation times and blood typing) with access to two commerical veterinary labs providing frequent sample pick-up throughout the day and onsite imaging (digital radiology, ultrasound, CT, fluoroscopy and MRI). We have ECG (telemetry and 6 lead), blood pressure (invasive and non-invasive), SPO2 and ETCO2 monitoring available for hospitalized and anesthetized equipment.
We have digital access to Plumb's formulary from any onsite computer as well as a small library of text books. There is also access to many of the larger veterinary journals available.
Students are scheduled for a five day work week (typically M-F) with some flexibility based upon travel schedule and interest in emergency/after hours procedures. Most days will be 10-11 hours unless a student chooses to stay to follow a case undergoing an emergency procedure (e.g. splenectomy to address a hemoabdomen). Students will always be working directly with a senior clinician and will not have primary case responsibility.