Dream Big! -- The Idea

Starting in June 2012, I will be traveling across the United States as a rotating mixed animal veterinary intern.  The goal is to begin to learn how to practice vet medicine while practicing love and loving life.

Ok, so the premise of this internship is to get as much experience from as many people as possible in 1 year's time.  I understand it may seem disjointed to some, but my thought is, if I want to be a mixed animal practitioner I should have a truly mixed educational experience.  I will work with different people, experience different case-approach styles, and begin to develop myself as a veterinarian by pooling together the best qualities of the people I work with. Vet school has been great in teaching the basics of what I'm working for and a systematic way to approach issues, but as a tertiary referral center, it has faltered in actually exposing me to a high case load and realistic diagnostic approaches.  I would love if, in general practice, we could regularly run all the tests we do at school, but unfortunately people don't have a solid day and $3,000 to spend each time they go to the vet, and I don't have state-funded equipment or geniuses like Kathy Spaulding and Mike Willard at my beck-and-call.

School is an ivory tower.  Things are done at that wonderful place which most practices could never dream of, like brain surgery, total hip replacements, MRI/CT scans, etc. The brilliant minds there find reasons for fevers of unknown origin, administer chemo and radiation therapy, and know how to manage the most difficult and frustrating cases. 

General practice is an art and a balance.  It's all about doing the best you can with what you've got.  You learn where the boundaries of your abilities are, push those boundaries towards self-improvement, and remain humble enough to realize when referral is necessary.

The middle ground is what I'm looking for this year.

I want to work with people who understand both; people who work in the trenches but constantly aim for ivory tower standards.  I want to think about the nuiances of different cases, develop an arsenal of approaches to problems, and streamline diagnostics in a way that best benefit patients yet remains affordable to owners.