Blog 8 - Research and Working EQ

   1. How can a veterinarian best prepare himself or herself for the struggles in the field including   euthanasia and stress?

     2. How can a veterinarian best prepare himself or herself for the struggles in the field including euthanasia and stress?

·      A veterinarian can get experience beforehand, for example volunteering at an animal hospital or animal shelter, and see how it’s like.

·      Veterinarians have to be able to control their emotions and not let that get in the way of work; this is a quality that vet students need to learn early on.

·      Veterinarians should be able to prioritize their responsibilities, for example work, family, money, and necessities, and not let one take over the other. Stress is a topic that has been discussed at veterinary schools often and at veterinary conferences.

    3. The most important source I have used to help me come up with my answer for my working EQ is a combination of different articles and this book called Tell Me Where It Hurts: A day of humor, healing, and hope in my life as an animal surgeon by Dr. Nick Trout. It has showed me in detail what a veterinarian goes through every day, specifically an animal surgeon.

     4.  My mentor is Dr. Leonard Sigdestad and I am doing my mentorship at the Loma Linda Animal Hospital. What I do helped me come up with my EQ. Many days I see Dr. Sigdestad run all over the place and talk to owners one after the other non stop throughout the whole day and he even has to stay after hours to perform surgeries and attend owners who weren’t attended during hospital hours. I wanted to know how he deals with all the stress he goes through every day and how he still enjoys his job taking care of animals. This helped me figure out one part of my EQ. One day, I had to help one of the nurses euthanize a dog and that was probably the saddest thing I have experienced in my life. I never knew they would let me do that and I thought how do the euthanize animals day after day without getting affected by it, which is what helped me figure out the second part of my EQ.

October Post - My First Injection To An Animal

Today I went to my mentorship and I did all the stuff I usually do. I cleaned the kennels, I walked the dogs, I helped with treatments of animals, did the laundry and swept, but later on one of the nurses asked me, "Do you want to inject this cat for me?" I got so excited because this was the first time I have ever injected an animal and of course I said yes. A few weeks ago the nurses taught me how to put the medication into a syringe so I was prepared to do that, but never did I think they were going to let me inject an animal. At first I was nervous to do this because I didn't know whether I was going to put it in right or the animal was going to react crazy, but everything went fine. I felt like an actual veterinarian and I feel like they trust me to do treatments and injections with the animals. Hopefully later on I get to experience more, but today was an exciting day for me. I have learned a lot from my mentorship at the Loma Linda Animal Hospital.