Have you ever witnessed a monkey spay? I bet you haven’t. Well, my name is Jamie Harrison, and I am a student in the Agriculture Business Management program at the Institute of Applied Agriculture. I am also an aspiring pre-veterinary animal science care major. I completed my internship at Chadwell Animal Hospital in Abingdon, MD, this summer. As an aspiring veterinarian, this hospital provided me with a feel of the professional field while providing me with practical and instructional teachings.
For me to become a veterinarian, requires an abundance of schooling, practical knowledge, and experience. This internship provided me with current knowledge in the field, and I learned through practical application. The primary responsibilities I accepted as a veterinary technician at Chadwell Animal Hospital are the combination of learning and being able to recognize medications, proper holding techniques, and properly diagnosing and treating patients. We must be accurate with all our major and minor hospital duties to ensure mistakes don’t occur and, most importantly, to provide our clients and their owners with the best and most humane care possible.
This field, containing a large amount of science and research, makes workers precious, but other than the accuracy and attention to detail, I love some interesting aspects of the job. Witnessing surgeries and assisting with holding procedures on patients has been my favorite part of the internship. Witnessing the techniques and specific protocols done before, during, and after surgery increases my practical knowledge of surgeries in the veterinary field. Learning and applying holding techniques to patients to assist veterinarians and other veterinary technicians with procedures also allows me to learn behavioral signs in patients so that I can adequately hold and diagnose what is happening with animals. I will become a veterinarian, and this internship influenced how an exotic, wildlife, and domesticated animal hospital runs. I have gained a liking for exotic and domesticated animals. This internship allowed me to narrow down which aspect of animal science I want to go into.
As a veterinary technician, I was responsible for stocking and setting up rooms and surgeries, as well as accurately acquiring patients' histories. Working with animals and recognizing medication, patients' blood, and holding allowed me to gain skills that are practical and applicable in the animal science field. Medicinal recognition and application are skills applicable in any medical position and are the major skills I developed at Chadwell this summer. During this summer, our head, Dr. Keith Gold, made it apparent that “it’s our duty to try our best to preserve our patients's lives.” That statement was the drive for me this summer to work hard and do my best in order to ensure the health of my patients.
As an aspiring pre-veterinary student, this internship provided me with the experience and practical knowledge to be prepared for the next steps of my career. It allowed me to gain new knowledge on exotic and domesticated animals and only increased my excitement to continue to study and apply the knowledge I acquired to situations.
