Externships

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Thank you for your interest in the Externship Program at VMSG.  The following externship opportunities are available: One Day Visit, Two Day Externship, Five Day Externship, and Extended Externship (any period of time beyond five days, to be done in five day blocks only). The One Day Visit and Two Day Externships give an overview of our staff and hospital. These short programs provide less of a learning opportunity and comparably less duties and responsibilities than the longer externships, but are good introductions to the VMSG offerings. The goal of the short programs is to allow you to interact with our specialists, interns, and staff and hopefully assist you in the decision-making process regarding your participation in future internship opportunities.

We do recommend a minimum of two weeks (Extended Externship) for an externship, but can provide a good experience in one week. Generally, we only accept One Day Visits and Two Day Externships Monday through Friday. The Five Day Externship and the Extended Externship begin on Mondays. If you have special needs let us know and we will attempt to meet your needs based on VMSG staff availability. The Five Day Externship program allows time for orientation to our computer and phone systems, participation in rounds, some interaction with clients, order writing and record documentation.

VMSG is a large 24 hour, 7 day, inpatient critical care, medicine and surgical practice working out of a 16,000 square foot, state-of-the-art facility. We have three operating suites, a special procedures room (i.e. endoscopy, bronchoscopy, rhinoscopy, etc.), ultrasound, an isolation ward (respiratory and GI isolation), pharmacy/lab area, canine rehabilitation (underwater treadmill), two digital radiography suites, and CT on premises. We have a large general ward and a large ICU as well as separate holding areas for triage (out patient services), oncology, and surgery.

Please see our Doctors page for more information about our team.  If you are considering an internship, we welcome you to visit our Internship program page.

Rounds

Inpatient Rounds are held daily and begin at 8:30 am, with the exception of Wednesday mornings, when they begin at 8 am. During in-patient rounds, case transfers are presented and in-hospital patient progress updates are given. On weekdays, rounds are held in the Conference Room (through the grey double doors next to the staff lunch room). On weekends, rounds are held in the Library. The purpose of inpatient rounds is to give interns practice at presenting cases to colleagues, get multi-specialist input on challenging cases, as well as to discuss and learn from any interesting topics that may arise.

Intern Journal Club is held on the second Friday of every month, at 7:30 am, in the Library. The goal is to review interesting articles in the current veterinary literature, with a focus on topics in internal medicine. Papers are generally distributed 1-2 weeks in advance. Externs are invited to attend.  If so, please ask the presenter or any of the interns for a copy of the assigned papers. The presenter schedule is listed on the refrigerator in the Specialists’ Office.

Radiology Rounds are held Wednesdays from 9:30 am – 10:30 am, in the  Conference Center.  This is an opportunity for interns to read radiographs from the past week, and review particularly interesting films with the radiologist.

Intern Lectures are held Tuesday mornings, and monthly M&M rounds are also part of the internship experience.

Additional Learning Opportunities

Veterinary Continuing Education, designed for our local referral veterinary community, is a monthly event at VMSG. It held from 12:30-1:30 pm in the Conference Room. Check the website for more information on topics and dates.  In addition, our interns participate in weekly radiology rounds, lectures, journal club, & M & M. If these events occur during your Externship experience you will be expected to be present and potentially participate.

Specialty Services

If you have a particular interest in an area of specialty (surgery, internal medicine, emergency and critical care, oncology, radiology), please introduce yourself to those specialists. In almost all cases, externs are welcome to accompany interns or specialists in the appointment room, and to participate in case workups.

Surgery – Our surgeons receive appointments or perform surgeries on alternating days, Monday to Friday. In addition, they are available for emergency surgeries after-hours. We do limit externs to invitation only inside the OR’s. If the surgeon is willing and you would like to be called after hours to assist with emergency surgeries, let the intern and specialist know so that they can call you should the occasion arise.

Internal Medicine – Along with their interns, one or two internists receive appointments and perform procedures (which may include: diagnostic testing, CT scan, various scoping procedures, ultrasound, joint taps, etc… Our Interns are allowed hands on experience with all of these procedures and equipment) from Monday to Saturday. On Sundays, they are available for emergency case transfers and in-hospital patient care, as well as the occasional internal medicine procedure.

Emergency and Critical Care – Emergency receiving provides an opportunity for primary case management by our interns. Guidance is provided 7 days a week by a critical care specialist or internist. In addition, patients needing intensive management are transferred to the critical care specialist and the ICU intern for further care.

Oncology – Appointments are scheduled on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. Most radiation therapy is performed off-site in the late afternoons on most weekdays; however we do treat on-site with orthovoltage for some superficial treatments.

Radiology – Our radiologist is in the building Monday through Thursday from 2 pm to 5 pm, to perform in-patient and out-patient imaging. Referral veterinarians can schedule a radiology appointment for patients needing an abdominal ultrasound only. Our internal medicine service also performs abdominal and cardiac ultrasounds.

We do have a dress code at VMSG and ask all of our visitors to observe the following:

• Shirts should be nice casual (no plain tee-shirts please).
• Pants must fully cover the extremities (no jeans, capri pants, or shorts). Most of the staff wears Docker style pants.
• Shoes must have closed toes.
• Coats and Scrubs: Please bring your own school coats if you like. We have scrubs available in sizes extra-small to 3XL.
• Diagnostic gear: if you are really attached to that special stethoscope (or other small diagnostic gear) please bring it.

Please direct externship correspondence to Tracy Gregg or Michelle Rose. We can be reached by email at students@vmsg.com or by calling (805) 339-2290. Also, please visit our website at www.vmsg.com.

Once you have decided what length externship best suits you, please complete the questions below.

• Desired date of visit :
• Full name:
• Phone number:
• Email address:
• Age:
• Gender:
• School name:
• School location:
• Area of interest for Internship/Residency:
• Expected graduation date:
• Work experience in this field:

The answers will assist us in making your welcome poster for your visit. Scheduling as early as possible will help ensure you get the dates you desire. Please contact us immediately if you have scheduling conflicts or need to change your dates.

We thank you again for your interest in the VMSG Externship Program.