Hands on participation with exams, diagnosis, and medical / surgical treatment of small animals in clinic practice

The student will assist Dr. Stephanie Gauta in the Maternity Barn with dystocias, palpations, c-sections, and overall herd health. The student will also have access our reproductive services that performs ET and IVF procedures. 

Students will engage in hands-on bench research involving the oncogenic retrovirus HTLV-1.  Lab techniques which will be utilized include (but are not limited to): mammalian cell culture, western blotting, qRT-PCR, confocal microscopy, and retroviral particle production. Exposure to animal research experiments (New Zeland white rabbits, NSG mice) will also be available.  

100% exotics only practice; full service veterinary hospital; wide range of species seen including small mammals, reptiles, avian, pot belly pigs; wide variety of surgeries done;

following excerpt taken from our student orientation packet:

• Primary Contact: Aprile Blair, Practice Manager. Email: aprile@eaccpasadena.com I may be reached by phone at 626.405.1777 or my cell if absolutely necessary.252.230.8051

• Cars should be parked on the top level of the parking deck. Please place one of our business cards on the left side of your dash to avoid being towed. If you get a parking ticket and/or are towed, please let me know immediately.

• We are open Monday through Saturday from 9:00 until 6:00pm. Arrival time for students should be no earlier than 8:50am and no later than 9:00am. Appointments usually begin at 9:00am. Our last appointment is scheduled for 5:00 pm. Although theoretically this should give us enough time to finish by 6, there are many days when we are here later. Veterinary medicine is not a “9 to 5” profession. 3rd year students are free to leave at 6pm. 4th year students should plan on staying at least until most appointments are finished, treatments done.

• Lunch schedules can be difficult here because of our heavy appointment load. We will help coordinate the best times for students to take a lunch break. However, do not depend on me or others to let you know the best time. If you need to eat, please feel free to do so. Team members have an hour for lunch although sometimes lunch times are shortened because of the case load. Please feel free to use the Employee Breakroom.

• The wi-fi network for students is EACC guest. Visit@eavc Is the password.

• We use Cornerstone for our clinic software. User ID: WU Password: student This will allow access to the schedule and client/patient charts. Some functions will be limited

• Dress Code: Solid color scrubs or casual business attire. White coats and your name tags should be worn when in the public areas of the hospital. Only closed toe shoes are allowed. Bring your stethoscopes and dosimeter badges.

• You will either choose or be assigned a case first thing in the mornings. If you choose please make sure to pick different species, if possible, every day. You will go in the exam room with the doctor and then “research” the case throughout the day. A completed SOAP will be expected by the day’s end. Please include a differential diagnosis and with the assessment determine what diagnostics will rule in/rule out the differential list. One of our docs will conduct “mini rounds” at the end of the day or the beginning of the next one to discuss cases and SOAP for all students. Dr. Eng will conduct the rounds on Tuesdays and Thursdays when he is here. Our other docs will share this responsibility. You will still be expected to shadow our techs and doctors throughout the entire day and your case work-up will be done during any “down time.”

• Doctor assignment will depend on the day. “Hands-on” experience will also depend on the DVM and the patient.

o Students should shadow assigned doctor’s room tech to complete educational experience while here. o Be prepared to do PE’s, including temperature, weights and complete histories. o Time constraints may not allow students to enter information into the clinic’s software, but students are encouraged to keep their own histories and medical records on patients.

o Students should also have a list of differential diagnoses and propose a diagnostic and treatment plan and be ready to discuss the options with the attending veterinarian. o Remember the patient’s well-being and the hospital schedule must be respected at all times.

• Technical duties: It is rare for any of our docs to perform any technical duties. Our techs do the majority of all blood draws, IV cath placements, radiographs, cystocentesis, figuring drug doses, fecals, etc. Our techs are a great source of info and you will learn as much or more from them as you do from our docs. You are expected and required to follow techs into exam room and remain until they are finished with their part of the visit. You will gain a ton of knowledge on all subjects and learn how to take a history. We will do our best to provide opportunities for you to practice as time constraints allow.

• Radiology is practiced daily at EAVC. This should not be a passive activity for students but a great chance to learn anatomy and patient placement for all the species seen at EAVC. Students should also try to contribute verbally when radiographs are being read.

• Involvement in surgery will also depend on the doctor. o Dr. Kanfer performs most surgeries on Wednesday although ER surgeries are performed as needed. All other doctors at EACC do surgery on an as needed basis. o Students should still prepare to be involved by becoming familiar ahead of time with the clinic’s anesthetic protocols. Scheduled surgical patients should also have an anesthetic risk assessment and management plan in place.

• Contact/study time: 4 hours a day are supposed to be designated as protected study time. However, your willingness to participate in interesting cases that may come in during this time would be to your benefit. If an interesting case presents during study time and we feel observing/participation would be beneficial to students, we will interrupt the study period. The office across the waiting room has been designated for study time.

• Conduct: Students are expected to demonstrate a professional attitude at all times. Our staff is motivated to teach by students who exhibit a real desire to learn from our techs and DVM’s. Actively engaging and interacting with them will increase what students learn while here.

• Evaluation: Feedback will be given weekly according to the criteria set by Western and the form WU provides will be used. This evaluation will be sent to your instructors at school. At the end of your rotation, a summative evaluation will be done. Our techs as \well as our docs will be consulted for their input for each evaluation. Informal feedback will be given as time constraints allow and as needed. We understand all students may not have had exposure to some material before starting you rotation at EACC. Feedback works both ways and we encourage students to let us know how we are doing to meet your needs.

• Please let the practice manager know immediately if an injury occurs while at EAVC

• Please let the practice manager know of any concerns/ problems you may have with any doctor or team member immediately.

• Personal items may be stored in the employee break room.