S2 Week 15: Being a Human in Vet Med, Integrative Lab Animal Medicine, and a Client Simulation Lab!
Updated: Apr 29
It is absolutely wild to think that we are officially one month away from finishing the school
year!
The second week of our GI block began with a few lectures focused on the teeth of domestic animals followed by a lecture on glycogen metabolism. It was super interesting to take a deep dive into odontogenesis and learn about the dental variations of different species!
During lunch, we had a fabulous talk from Dr. Amanda Smith. Dr. Smith is a Texas A&M graduate who worked in small animal general practice and is now the campus liaison for Innovetive PetCare! Her talk was centered around the theme of “how to be a human in vet med” and was filled with personal anecdotes and tips for thriving in not only veterinary medicine but life as well!
Dr. Smith began her presentation by discussing the things that she knew, or was told during school, versus the things she had to find out the hard way. People typically do not go into veterinary medicine because they think it will be easy. Most know that getting into a school
is rigorous and once you’re in, the grind does not stop. For those of you who have not had
the joy of experiencing vet school, think of it as if you were running on a treadmill at full
speed with no end in sight and the safety cord is disconnected so there is no way to slow
down. You either keep up, barely hang on, or get catapulted off the back end and oftentimes it’s a mix of all three of those at once.
What some people often don’t realize is that once you graduate, working as a vet in the “real world” isn’t any easier and the medicine aspect is sometimes the easiest part. Another key thing that Dr. Smith mentioned was that if you want to be mentored you have to push for it. The idea of mentorship looks different for everyone but as a new graduate, it is imperative that you have an idea of what you are looking for in a mentor and what you want to get out of that relationship. It is also important to think of this relationship as two- sided, you must be the mentee you’d want to teach.
Dr. Smith then transitioned into an analysis of the following traits that veterinarians usually align with. They are “type-A”, over-achievers, empathetic, passionate, dedicated, compassionate, and have perfectionist tendencies. On the outside, these all seem like super positive characteristics, but it is important to understand that when a lot of these traits are combined with external pressures such as money, client frustration, poor case turnout, imposter syndrome, it can lead to burnout and a poor quality of life.
Here are a few takeaways and tips from Dr. Smith on how veterinarians can protect
themselves from reaching a state of burnout:
1. Set boundaries with clients, your staff/team, as well as your friends and family
2. Make time for yourself, learn who you are and what is important to you
3. Find what restores your energy
4. Learn when to say no and understand “no” is a complete sentence
5. Take care of your body (nutrition, exercise, sleep)
6. Take care of your mind
7. The job is hard and we have to work to protect ourselves from burnout and
compassion fatigue
8. Make connections and relationships so you can lean on them when you are
struggling
9. Say no when you are stressed
10. Find a practice that values you as a person and supports you with your clients,
mentorship and growth
11.Remember why you became a veterinarian
Overall, I thought that this talk was a great reminder of the importance of stepping back and making sure to take time for yourself because it is only going to make you a better doctor in the end. I appreciate Dr. Smith taking the time to share her personal experience in the world of veterinary medicine and dedicating herself to helping students find their footing in the profession. If you are a student or new graduate and are interested in some awesome opportunities, feel free to check out Innovetive PetCare here!
The rest of the afternoon was broken up into two, 2-hour blocks. The first block was used to
prepare for our first client simulation lab that was scheduled for later in the week and the
second two-hour block was a career panel discussion. This panel was filled with different
veterinarians including mobile surgeons, large animal internists, emergency and critical
care specialists, general practitioners, and a pathologist. It was super interesting to hear all
of their stories and have the ability to ask them about different aspects of their careers. The
rest of the evening was spent helping with the KLOHC undergraduate class and then
hanging out with Churro.
Tuesday morning started off with a nice run with Churro followed by a lecture on oxidative
metabolism. We then had two lectures on liver physiology. It was super interesting to learn the ins and outs of how the liver functions and tie it back to the information that we had learned the prior week.
We then had a lunch talk from Dr. Elizabeth Magden. Dr. Magden is a boarded lab animal veterinarian and is also trained in veterinary acupuncture. She spoke about how she has used positive reinforcement training, acupuncture, and laser therapy to improve non-human primate healthcare in a research facility. It was super interesting to see how these animals were conditioned to tolerate and even help facilitate a lot of their common health checks through the use of positive reinforcement techniques. After Dr. Magden discussed her training methods, she spoke about the benefits of acupuncture. Here is an explanation on acupuncture and the associated benefits.
Acupuncture Involves insertion of thin, sterile needles which stimulate physiologic processes through neural signaling. Most acupuncture points occur at sites with high density of neurovascular bundles often in close proximity to blood vessels. 99% of the points are within 0.5mm of a nerve! As acupuncture needles are inserted, they are rotated, which creates a coupling between the needle and underlying connective tissue.
How does it work?
Stimulation of a nerve leads to a local afferent signal at the periphery which travels to the
spinal cord. This results in afferent signals being sent back to the periphery as well as
stimulating the release of endogenous opioids from the dorsal horn of the spinal cord
which is thought to affect analgesia. Inserting the needles also promotes blood flow which
enhances the healing process. While some may be a little suspicious of the benefits of acupuncture, there is a lot of scientific literature (WHO, NIH, etc.) that explain the benefits.
Here is a list of conditions that have been improved through the use of acupuncture:
Degenerative joint disease
Osteoarthritis
Chronic orofacial pain
Migraine
Stroke
Spinal Cord injury
Stress/depression
Cardiomyopathies
GI disorders
Hypertension
Improved circulation and decreased edema
Wound healing
Dr. Magden has used acupuncture in conjunction with other medications and seen terrific
results. One specific case involving a primate subject saw an increase in mobility scores as
well as apparent quality of life.
She used a pedometer to track the primate’s activity and here were the stats:
Start: roughly 2k steps a day
Week 7: Roughly 5.5k steps a day
End: About 7k steps per day
*Normal is around 4-6 so he was back to normal mobility patterns!
I thought that this talk was a great demonstration of the benefit that acupuncture can
provide when it is added into a treatment plan. It was also interesting to see how the use of
positive reinforcement training techniques could dramatically decrease the stress associated with daily medical tasks!
That afternoon we had a lecture on the laboratory analysis of liver enzymes and then we
were done for the day! I was able to get in a hot yoga session and spend some quality time
with Churro.
Wednesday morning started off with another hot yoga class followed by a lecture on liver
pathology. We then transitioned into a two-hour discussion on imaging and pathology
correlates in the abdomen. This discussion was super helpful because we were able to
look at radiographs and once we were done discussing our findings, we were actually able
to see the pathology pictures which made the radiographs make more sense. We finished
up the morning with another lecture on liver pathology.
At lunch we had a wonderful talk from Dr. Beth Neuman on medical mishaps in a veterinary
setting. This talk brought up a multitude of unfortunate situations that could easily happen
to anyone and we had the ability to talk through them and analyze the pros and cons of our
decisions. This talk was super beneficial because although there isn’t necessarily a right or
wrong answer in many of these situations, it is nice to think about the different options and
their sequelae.
That afternoon we had another lecture on evaluating functional liver enzymes and then we
got to spend some time with our cadaver dogs. The anatomy lab focused on the major
veins, nerves, and arteries of the gastrointestinal tract. This was a nice way to solidify some
of the earlier lecture concepts and bring some of the two-dimensional images to life.
The rest of the evening was spent taking Churro on a long walk and studying.
Thursday started off with a fun run with Churro followed by a radiographic imaging case discussion. This discussion was basically a continuation of the prior day’s cases but there was a little more emphasis on the liver and spleen. That afternoon we had our first client simulation lab which was pretty exciting. This lab was based on Dr. Jim Clark’s WISE COACH model which is commonly used as an outline for client communication and history taking. We were assessed on our ability to role-play being a vet and going through the WISE portion with a classmate as the client. We were all split up into groups of about 6 students and a mentor and took turns being the vet and client. Another fun aspect of this simulation was that our encounters were recorded and after the session we got to review them and figure out things that went well and things that could be improved in the future. While the exercise was a little nerve wracking, it was a fun and low-stakes way of practicing client communication.
That evening I had the opportunity to join the Sacramento Valley Veterinary Medical
Association for their continuing education event. This talk was focused around the new
joint nutraceutical, Rejensa. Rejensa is a supplement that contains N-Butyryl Glucosamine which has been seen to have protective effects on the bones of animal models that exhibited destructive arthritis and osteoporosis (Dixon). More info on the science behind Rejensa can be found here.
Friday was kicked off with a hot yoga session followed by a swim. We only had one lab and it started at 10:00 which gave me some extra time in the morning. The lab was broken into four stations, all of which focused on the liver and helped emphasize different concepts that we had covered over the past two weeks. The rest of the day consisted of a long walk with Churro followed by some studying.
Saturday started off with a run with Churro followed by a nice hot yoga session. The rest of the day was spent getting some things done around the house and studying for the upcoming GI exam.
Sunday began with a run with Churro followed by a day full of studying in preparation for the first GI exam tomorrow!
Quote of the week: “Sometimes you just need to do some procrastinatory hemostasis...”
Dr. Heller
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