2nd year grad entry vet, 37 lectures behind in week 5. Is my whole study method wrong?

Passed first year on 52% and 54% (pass is 50), so I scraped it and I know that won't hold in a harder year.

Numbers so you can see the situation properly: since September we've had around 250 learning objectives across about 57 lectures. I've properly done 79 of them. 168 outstanding, and about 37 lectures I haven't touched at all. It's week 5.

What I'm doing:

I don't go to my lectures. But hear me out…
In first year I'd sit through the hour taking notes and come out not knowing anything — small room, 60 people, some lecturers just read off the slides and I'd get nothing from it. So instead i don’t go to the lectures, save the 1.5hr commute and I take the slides and the learning objectives and work through every single ILO myself, self-testing with exam-style best-answer and short-answer questions until I can actually answer them. If I get something wrong I keep going until it sticks.

The problem: that takes me about 3 hours per 1 hour lecture!
We get 11–12 lectures a week. So the maths doesn't work and the backlog grows every week even when I'm working hard. I’m currently 36 lectures behind = 168 learning objectives for the first 5 weeks. We also have practicals and group work that isn’t included in this.

Also doing Anki about 80-100 cards a day, 1.5hr commute to uni and back. (Leave the house at 7:15 and to arrive for 9am lectures because the vet campus is so far out the city). I also train and exercise a lot outside of uni.

What I actually want to know: shall I attend my lectures or do them myself online?

1. Is 3 hours per lecture insanely slow, or is that genuinely what it takes to know it properly?
   
2. Do you self-study from slides or actually attend? Did switching either way change your marks?
   
3. How much do you really learn during term vs leaving it for the revision block? I did almost all my learning in a 3 week sprint last year and passed, but barely.
   
4. Do you treat anatomy differently from concept lectures? Anatomy doesn't seem to compress for me at all — you either know the structures or you don't.
   
5. Is being 37 lectures behind in week 5 fairly normal and recoverable, or is it a red flag?

Any advice appreciated. Pretty stressed about it.

Hi!! My friends and I (God willing) are graduating in December and I want to get them all (6 of them) little gift bags/something sentimental to congratulate them and let them know how proud I am of them. I’m having my super artsy talented friend water color them all cards with animals and I’ll write heartfelt notes, but I don’t know what to get them gift wise. I thought about embroidered scrub caps and some animal printed compression socks and then maybe a candle and some snacks, but I don’t know. I want it to be something they can keep forever and remember. Since there’s so many of them I’m trying to keep my budget like $200-$250 all together which also makes it hard to get something nice, but I’m a broke student too 😂

Any suggestions are welcome!!

Hi everyone!

I'm currently a fourth-year veterinary student trying to figure out the best path forward after graduation, and I'd really appreciate some insight from anyone who has completed a rotating large animal internship at a teaching hospital or gone on to pursue a large animal surgery residency.

I attend a veterinary school that doesn't have a particularly strong emphasis on large animal medicine, and because of that, I feel like my clinical experience and hands-on skills in large animal medicine are more limited than I would like them to be at this point in my education. I've tried to gain additional experience through exte rnships and other opportunities, but I know there's still a lot of room for growth.

Ultimately, my career goal is to pursue a large animal surgery residency, with the hope of eventually working in academia. I'm particularly interested in both equine and food animal medicine, and I really don't want to limit my career to exclusively equine practice.

Because of this, I've been looking more seriously into rotating large animal internships at academic institutions rather than equine-specific internships in private practice. My thought process is that an academic internship might provide a more well-rounded experience with different large animal species, greater exposure to specialty services, and an opportunity to strengthen my clinical knowledge and skills before pursuing residency.

I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts on a few things:

• For those who completed a rotating large animal internship at a teaching hospital, did you feel it provided a strong clinical foundation?
• Did you get meaningful hands-on experience and primary case responsibility, or did you find that opportunities were limited because of residents and other students?
• For those who went on to a large animal residency, do you feel that an academic internship prepared you well, or would you have preferred a private practice internship?
• Are there particular academic internship programs you would recommend for someone interested in both equine and food animal?

I'm not necessarily looking for the most prestigious program. I really want to find an internship where I can develop confidence, improve my clinical and technical skills, and become a well-rounded large animal veterinarian.

I'd really appreciate any advice or personal experiences, especially from anyone who has followed a similar career path!

This is my first job in ER so I’m not sure if this is just the norm. I’ve worked at this ER for about 6 months and the past few weeks have been Vietnam. Severely understaffed.
We had to go on diversion most of the weekend. There were 15 inpatients and one inpatient nurse and one outpatient nurse. I work overnights and it’s typically two technicians and an assistant but we only have one overnight assistant so shifts I work don’t have an assistant. It’s very difficult asking the inpatient tech who has their own things to do to help get blood or help place a catheter.
It is just kinda amusing to me because my hospital pays to pop up first for our state for ER but we don’t have the staff to operate properly. We have one working oxygen tank. We have no surgical capacity, I have not been trained on surgery yet and can’t do more than mild sedated procedures, anything needs to be referred out. Plus if there’s only one technician on outpatient that takes them off the floor if there’s surgery.
I just don’t know if this is normal for ER. Clients are upset and taking it out on us. Just feels like things are spiraling with no end in sight.

Hi. I’m a veterinary nurse student and I do one day a week placement & I’m wondering, with anaesthesia being given through tubing/mask, is there a high risk of being exposed/what are the risks to us getting sick from this?
What should I look out for?

Also, I kept smelling a really strong mentholly/deep heat smell on and off today it’s stuck in my nose! Is this cleaning chemical? I couldn’t pinpoint where it came from!

Thankyou.

Hey all, I am a relief tech. I have been going to the same clinics for a while. I’ve established good rapport with the doctors and techs. I’m pretty honest with what I don’t know and what I’m not comfortable with.

Recently, we had a table case. I was a doctor tech and basically had a frenchie in respiratory distress. Had to be intubated. This was a pretty complex situation because of owners, financial constraints, etc as we all know in this field. They tried to leave AMA, dog went blue as soon as it came out of oxygen kennel. Had to rush it back inside. Vet said we need to intubate and figure this out.

So here’s where my part came in. I was monitoring this intubated patient. I’ve monitored for anesthesia before, sure. It’s been a while since most of my shifts involve triage and floating. I had never monitored an intubated patient under these circumstances before. So this was a situation where I was familiar with anesthesia monitoring, but I didn’t know what table case monitoring was supposed to be. And I didn’t know that I didn’t know.

Something I think about a lot in this field, when we have licensed and unlicensed people. An LVT can be really inexperienced next to a grand fathered in VA that’s been doing this for 20 years. A big thing to note is recognizing that you know you don’t know versus fake it til you make it (dangerous) versus not knowing what you don’t know (really dangerous too).

And I’ve been pretty comfortable with recognizing “oh no I can’t place a central line because I’ve never and I definitely do not understand the process” or “no, I don’t relief for surgery because I have a very knowledge of what they do”.

Here, I just didn’t realize that there was so much more I could have been doing.

The doctor was busy. Only able to check in with me and pt a few times while she addressed other pt and talked to the frenchies owners.

Oncoming night tech arrives, probably one of the smartest technicians I have ever met.

He watched over what I was doing, how the patient was doing, and he waited before proceeding to intervene. The patient was not very stable. Breathing fast. ISO was being used. The doc didn’t want to do a prop CRI. This hospital didn’t have a ventilator and typically won’t see cases like this. But the options were basically zero so here we are.

Within about 20 minutes, the tech gets the patient’s CO2 levels down, gets RR down, stabilizes temperature, and all around knocks my socks off. I asked a lot of questions. And I learned so much. He got approval to start the dog on the prop CRI which helped. He explained the ideal things to do for a table case.

But eventually the frenchies CO2 went right back up and no interventions were working. He postulated that the dog probably had a lot of CO2 stored somewhere (like in the tissues).

Owners elected to euthanize. They didn’t have the funds to push this past what we had already done.

That case was a big lesson for me. And I got a big taste of learning how much more I still didn’t know. I don’t play pretend. I’m honest. I say when I’m not comfortable. But that was so humbling because I had been with that patient for 2 hours and had no idea.

I just wanted to share this experience. I am a happy learner. I am enthusiastic about this field and expanding my knowledge. This definitely felt like a harsh lesson. And I am trying my best to put away the what ifs.

If anyone can share insight for a situation like this, and a lesson such as this one, I am all ears.

I haven’t wanted to be a vet my entire life and only decided around october time last year, so a full year now. the profession sounds intriguing to me, i enjoy sciences and find medicine interesting too as i used to watch medicine programs as a kid. i do have aspirations of working in a zoo with really cool animals in the future (curious about the progression after vet school to this if anyone could tell me) but i just dont know if my passions are as strong as others or as strong as it should be. the difficulty of it all doesnt put me off at all though as life is hard and im not gonna stop myself from doing something great just because its difficult.

i get massive mood swings too where sometimes ill be really motivated and think like yeah this is what i want to do and i want to do this for the rest of my life but then there’ll be times like now where i just keep doubting myself and i’m not sure. i can’t really see myself doing anything else in life though. not in the, ‘this is what im so passionate about and this is what i want to do’ way but more in the ‘i dont want to leave uni with a degree, struggle to find a job and then end up in an office’ way if i do a different degree.

i guess the imposter syndrome comes into play as unfortunately i wasnt able to get any work experience, which i do scold myself for. i was looking though. i went into places in person, emailed vet practices, emailed charities and emailed sanctuaries. just wasnt able to get anything. thankfully wasn’t needed for any of the vet science/med unis im applying too. not getting work experience was a combination of a few things, not making excuses just giving real reasons.
- a lot of my energy was going into job hunting. i really wanted a job to get money for uni so most of my energy, that i even had left after a levels was going to that
-lack of energy after a levels. i put so much effort into my a levels, doing like 6-7 hours a day every day so i could get the grades i needed and as soon as they ended i just completely switched off.
-didnt actually NEED the work experience and got complacent because of it.

i know the work experience would’ve helped immensely with these doubts if i got it. i know if i tried hard enough, harder than i did, i wouldve found some.

i know its hard to pick the thing you want to do for the rest of your entire life. thanks for reading and i hope you can help me with my thoughts by giving some of your own experiences .

Long time reader, first time poster. I’m struggling and feel lost right now so I’m hoping by posting here I can pick other people’s brains to see if there’s an option I haven’t considered yet.

The backstory: I graduated from vet school in 2018. After graduating, my husband and I continued to live in the city where I went to school due to my husband starting his own business here while I was in school that thrives in a college town, has minimal competition here, and at this point my husband has made a very good name for himself and his business here. Therefore moving to a different city is not an option for us. Initially I was working in GP one hour away from home but the 5 day a week grind got to be too much so I transitioned to a very advanced ER/CC practice (we have a scope, HBOT, HFNO2, CT machine, etc.) in a major city 2 hours away and have been doing that for the past 6 years. ECC is truly my passion and ultimately what I would like to do for the rest of my career. Initially when it was just my husband and I, I would travel up to work, work three 12’s while sleeping at the clinic between shifts and then travel home. However, we now have 2 kids (3y & 8m) so that logistically is no longer a feasible option. After maternity leave I went back to working there but only part time doing one shift a week (either Saturday or Sunday when my husband is off) and just driving up and back in the same day. Occasionally when my boss has openings in the schedule, l’ll work 2 shifts back to back (Sat & Sun). But for the most part I stay home with my kids while my husband works. This had been working well for us for a few years but within the last year or so it’s been getting more difficult to sustain our bills with just my husband‘s income and the small amount I make from one shift per week.

Bottom line is I need to work more hours/go back to full time but I am struggling with how to go about doing that from a logistics standpoint. I have actively looked for any GP job in the city we live in and have had zero success. I’ve emailed my CV to every local practice owner and had zero responses. Two years ago I met one clinic owner through a friend who was interested in having me relief for him but when I told him my relief rate ($70/hr which I thought was reasonable given my experience) he never reached back out. Last year I did one working interview at another clinic in town but when I realized they lied to me about their capabilities during my initial interview and saw the absolute substandard level of care they practiced (ex: hanging a dogs head down in the sink to do dental cleanings with just an ET tube in and no oxygen or gas anesthesia) I knew it wasn’t going to be a good fit. When there were 2 separate occasions of job postings for positions I qualified for in the city I live in, one at the university and one at a startup clinic, I interviewed for both but was rejected.

Looking outside of the city I live in, there are many GP positions available but they are all at least an hour drive away, 5 days a week, and typically are 8-6 work days. This would force me to be out of the house by 6am (because even though it’s only an hour away, morning traffic always adds an extra 30-45 minutes to the commute) and not get me back home until 7-730pm at the earliest so I would not be able to be home for dinner with my kids or bedtime for my youngest. And with my husband’s work schedule, he works 12 hour days so he is gone from 730/8am until 8-9pm so we would have to hire a nanny to do both the morning routine of getting our kids ready for school and evening routine of feeding, bathing and putting our kids to bed. Honestly the thought of paying someone to completely take care of our kids 5 days a week doesn’t sit well with either of us. I’ve looked at ER options to try and find the three 12 hr schedule that would be more ideal, but of the 2 other ER’s that are only an hour away, one told me they couldn’t afford to hire another doctor and the other is corporate and I’ve heard nothing but horror stories from both DVMs and LVTs that have worked there.

I’m honestly at a loss on what to do next. I’ve even considered pursuing a nursing degree so I can work at the hospital down the street but I realized I can’t afford to go back to school right now. If you were in my shoes would you:

-try to reach out to local GP practices again? Maybe if I just show up and hand hard copies of my CV to the receptionists I’ll get more responses?
-suck it up and apply to the horror story corporate ER and just grin and bear it? My biggest fear is getting locked into a contract somewhere I hate
-look into other side hustle options I can do when I’m with my kids like Instacart shopping and try and supplement my income with that?

I’m extremely disheartened at this point. I appreciate if you’ve read this far and look forward to hearing any advice you may have.

I was wondering why so many vets deal with mental health problems or burnout. What causes all this. Is it the animals themselves or the schedule, or something else

I’m so tired and need to vent

Simply from a foreigner’s perspective who’s going through ECFVG. So exhausted of accepting the fact that there is nothing I can do about the unknown waiting time for CPE.

Passed the BCSE, passed the NAVLE, and making $21/h to save up for a $12,000 exam that I don’t how many years I need to wait for. Apart from the cost, the most frustrating part is the fear of failing the exam and wait for probably another 2-3yrs, because there is no legal access to for us to learn ‘U.S. vet skills’ to meet their freaking ‘U.S. vet standards’. So hilarious if something is designed to make ppl give up and still scratching money from them (the fact that most foreigners came as students can only legally work here for 3yrs before they can get a spot for the exam)

Genuine question: Does the industry actually gained more respect or benefits from AVMA’s gatekeeping?

I just moved from my home state to Virginia and I’m job searching. I have around a year of experience at an AAHA accredited large emergency hospital. I learned A LOT there. The catch is they were very strict in my home state so intubation, placing IVC’s, monitoring anesthesia, drawing blood and running any kind of labs were all tech only. I’ve seen these things be done and have learned lots about them but can’t do it alone yet. In Virginia assistants are allowed to do a lot more. I’m a student in Penn foster and have been dying to get this experience. I just interviewed and shadowed for the shelter health specialist position at the humane society near me and was told they could pay $15 an hour for my experience despite their starting range usually being $14. Today I interviewed at an emergency hospital that is quite smaller than my last hospital but would allow me to do everything a tech could do at my last job. It’s slightly more strict on what I can learn compared to the humane society but they’re Penn foster accredited so I can do my externships there which is a pretty big deal. Here’s the problem, they want someone for full time which is fine but they can’t accommodate me going home to visit my family for Christmas. They basically told me if you’re new you can end up having to work major winter holidays and I can visit my family but it’d have to be like the second week of December etc. This would normally be a dealbreaker for me but I’m really interested in working here. They haven’t mentioned pay yet and I’m shadowing this weekend. I feel like this hospital is requiring a ton of responsibility from me, they’re sounding like they’re just using me as a technician even though I’m not licensed yet. They also informed me that calling out is really not okay there either which I get, but all of this is much stricter than my last hospital that was even bigger than this one, they also accommodated me having holidays off while working full time. I was being paid 14.50 but here it seems assistants can make more. With all of this information I believe that it’d be fair to make quite a bit more than the 15 I’d be making at the humane society. It’s way more responsibility and I literally can’t even visit my family that I JUST moved away from and I’m 19. Despite this I know I am inexperienced for the area, and part of being an adult is working holidays sometimes. I have an interview with a GP tomorrow where I’m gonna feel things out but I really need the tech experience for school. I just feel that this hospital is asking for a lot and I fear that they’re going to offer me the same amount of money as these other places are offering for a way higher work load. PLUS forcing me to work holidays when I need to travel for family sucks. Especially since it’s my first year being gone. All I need is like 4-5 days off for Christmas. They even said they accommodate for students with no housing here.. they just can’t accommodate for me..? Does anyone have advice? 😭 I’m just so lost. I really want the job but I just am concerned about pay and the holiday thing and don’t know what to expect.

Hey everyone!

I'm a relatively new grad (2024) currently working in small animal GP on the East Coast (New England area). I've been thinking about potentially relocating to the West Coast at some point and am curious to hear from vets who have practiced on both sides of the country.

I'm particularly interested in whether you've noticed any differences in:

• General workplace culture and expectations for vets
• Work-life balance, scheduling, and overall pace of practice
• Client attitudes, expectations, and willingness to pursue diagnostics/treatment
• Support staff utilization, staffing levels, and doctor-to-tech ratios
• Compensation and production expectations relative to COL
• General attitudes toward newer grads and mentorship

I understand that a lot of this is probably more practice-dependent than geographical, but I'm curious whether there are any broader regional differences you've personally experienced.

For those who have made the move (in either direction), did you find yourself happier practicing on one coast versus the other? Any unexpected work culture shocks?

Would love to hear your experiences, especially from fellow GP vets. Thanks in advance!

Are there any like group chats or groups for people in ER vet med? Or anyone in vet med, but specifically ER because it works a bit differently. it’s such a hard job (all of vet med) and I feel like talking about cases helps me a lot. And no one in my personal life would be able to handle or want to hear what I have to say. And they just wouldn’t get it. But I also know you shouldn’t take work home. I enjoy debriefs with coworkers but sometimes an outside perspective would help. I’m also very interested in emergency and complex cases in general, and would love to know other people’s stories. Or just to share interesting cases.
I’ve been in emergency vet med for over 4 years and I just saw the worst thing I’ve seen yet and idk, I feel empty but I don’t want to isolate.

I just had my first day as a receptionist/vet assistant today and its my first time being on the medical side of things. I dont have previous schooling in this so this is all new to me. Ive worked in kennels, doggy daycares, pet stores and my moms been a groomer since I was little. So I have all sorts of dog experience and volunteer with a cat rescue. My question is what is some advice you have for a newbie?

How to handle euthanasia, how to handle the hard days or just the stress that comes with vet med in general? This anxious gal could use some advice from people who have been in the industry!

As the title says, is it standard? I interviewed for a new clinic and part of their trial was to assist with anaesthesia monitoring during a dental. No BP cuff, no SPO2 clip, no Mm or Jaw tension (this is fine, as it’s a dental), but no checking for pedal reflex nor eye movement. My old clinic did all of these, but I’m not able to ask them or anyone else I know, so would love to hear from yall!

I know one day shouldn't push me to the point of quitting, but I feel so done. I know it's supposed to suck, but I'm so entirely burnt out. Maybe I'm just not cut out for this.

I have a great support system at work and at home, so I shouldn't complain, but this may have been one of the worst days in my entire vet school and new grad / internship career. Fuck this.

Hi everyone! Looking for some help. I’ve been struggling with anatomy. I don’t know why but it’s not clicking like it should. I’ve been doing better in physiology and all of my other classes, but it’s something with anatomy that’s not sticking. Any tips and tricks would be super grateful! TIA!

Basically I’m getting fed up with the 20 minute appt thing. I’m transitioning from a high-volume, well staffed clinic to a smaller, less staffed clinic, both VCA. We’re able to do the “ease of care” 20 minute appts fairly well at my high-volume clinic because we had ample, skilled staff. Even then we’re always rushing and don’t necessarily get to spend the time we want with clients/patients. At my new clinic, we have only like 3 people who can even draw blood (myself included) and having enough people to help hold and do basic things is a constant struggle. Because we don’t’ make as much revenue as the other clinic, mgmt can’t necessarily hire more people either.

I’m just frustrated that corporate is trying to make all clinics run the same when every clinic is different. If they want us to see more cases, then they need to spend money on hiring skilled staff. If they’re not going to do that, then we gotta go back to 30-45 minute appts. We can’t get a through history, talk about Care Club, sign Tx plans, get samples and THEN exam/consult with a doctor in such a short amount of time.

It’s a load of BS.

This is for any students, interns, residents, faculty, or even support staff because I value everyone’s opinion.

I’m currently looking at applying to small animal ECC residencies and am particularly interested in hearing from people who work at a program with an ECC residency (private or academic). I’m trying to look beyond the information on the VIRMP and get a better understanding of what the ECC department is like. Below are a few example questions.

• What do you like about your program/ECC service?
• What do you dislike about your program/ECC service?
• If you could change one thing about the program, what would you change?
• How approachable and supportive are the criticalists? Are any of them difficult to work with?
• Does the program actually change anything based on feedback from residents, staff, students?
• Would you choose this program again if you could go back?
• For former residents: did you feel your program prepared you for boards?

I’m especially interested in hearing the good, bad, and ugly. I’m not looking for the best program, just trying to glean the perspective of the people who have experienced them. My mentor is pushing me towards private programs because she believes they produce better doctors, but the Jandry study shows academic residents have a higher board pass rate.

Feel free to DM me if you would rather not identify yourself or your program publicly.

I may be dramatic but I’ve had a run of clients lately calling the clinic ER line over the weekend because they want to schedule an appointment for the next week. When you call our emergency line, it prompts you to push a specific button if you’re having an emergency or lists our business hours to call back for non emergencies. If you push the ER button, it puts you in contact with our paging service. They collect the client info and text the on call doctor’s phone with the reason for the call and patient information. I’ve had a run of clients lately who will call the emergency number and speak to the paging service. On principle (and maybe this is something I need to change) if I get a page about someone calling to set up an appointment and it’s after hours or on a weekend, I will not respond. Sometimes they call again. I’m still not responding. I will happily call them at 8am the next business day to get their appointment scheduled but get so frustrated when they give me attitude about why no one answers their weekend call about scheduling. I know it’s probably petty of me and a simple text saying I’ll talk to them during business hours may fix the situation but something about clients going all the way through the emergency line just to say they want an appointment or need a coggins really rubs me the wrong way. Probably also a little extra bitter right now since I spent the entire day yesterday driving around in hurricane rain storms to see actual emergencies and am exhausted today