Monday, July 20th
Todays cases were too depressing to describe in detail.
Here's the spark note version: Picture two hours of trying to pull a dead, rotting calf. Now picture it's raining. It smells terrible. Despite everything, the cow dies the next day. Now, picture pulling two more dead, rotting calves in the same day. I ate a lot of chocolate at the end of this day. I know my mom is probably reading this so I will not post any pictures. (You're welcome, mom)
In other news, here are some interesting facts to consider:
Population of New Zealand: 4.47 million
Population of Georgia: 10.1 million
Population of Te Awamutu, NZ: 10, 000
Population of Athens, GA: 120,000
Number of AVMA Accredited Vet Schools in the States: 30
Class size of UGA College of Veterinary Medicine: 112 students
In the US, vet school is usually a 4 year program that starts after having completed a 4 year undergraduate degree, or after completing all prerequisite courses.
Number of AVMA Accredited Vet Schools in Vew Zealand: 1
Class size of Massey University (NZ) BVS Program: ~100 students (25% from abroad)
In New Zealand, vet school is a 5 year program that starts immediately after completing secondary school (high school).
The average debt load of a vet school graduate in the States exceeds $160,000. Often higher for those who receive no help from their parents. These loans are government issued and unsubsidized, meaning that although my calssmates and I will not graduate for another year, our loans are already acruing interest. Basically, the government is making BANK off of veterinary students. It'll take decades to pay these off.
The average debt load of a domestic vet school graduate in New Zealand is a bit lower. Mind you, they get to start paying off their loans at a younger age, usually, than graduates in the States. They also sometimes have the option of subsidized loans.
It's super fun to look at the differences. It's also rather disheartening if, like me, you're already over $75,000 in debt with another two years before you can, hopefully, have a salary-paying career, with which start repaying your loans.
Here's the part where I start my rant:
UGA charges students a full semester's tuition for the summer that we complete part of our clinical rotations. During this time, while our unsubsidized loans are accruing interest, we work 10-12 hour days in the teaching hospital. We also come in on weekends and do morning and evening treatments for our patients. We also are required to work an extra 10+ hours each 3 week block in the ER. These shifts have been known to keep students in the ER until 2-4am. These same students have to be back at 6am to complete treatments and then complete another 12 hours of work that day.
Personally, I do a very poor job of learning after 4 days with a cummulative 9 hours of sleep. This particular week I am refering to, ended with a me having a minor melt down in the ER, when I couldn't figure out how to set up a fluid pump. Embarassing, yes. Very. But the few tears I shed in front of a very uncomfortable/frightened clinician (who I'm fairly certain now thinks I'm loony) were 99% exhaustion and 1% frustration. There are vets and interns who love their jobs. Their jobs are their lives. Honestly, they live at the school. They spend 80% of their time there and sacrifice a huge chunk of their social lives. They don't mind doing it either because their jobs are rewarding and they love it. I admire them. I wish I loved it that much, but I don't have the same level of passion. I do love this job...but for 10, maybe 11 hours a day, tops. I also love to cook and sleep and do laundry and go to church on Sunday....all things I don't have time to do when there are patients attached to my name. I'm amazed by people who function so well on so little sleep and still manage to calculate drug dosages, perform emergency procedures, speak calmly to emotional clients, and save lives.
One thing I find incredibly frustrating is, regardless of how many externships students take, even if they only spend three weeks at the actual vet school, they still have to pay a full semester's tuition and are personally responsible for all expenses incurred during externships. I'm not saying I want the school to pay for my trip to New Zealand...that would be absolutely ridiculous....but, I strongly believe that there are many educational experiences that can only be offered via externship, that the vet school does not provide. I'd appreciate being cut a little slack, financially, if I'm doing my learning elsewhere on my own dime.
When starting vet school, everyone likes to remind students that being accepted to vet school is an incredible honor, and that they shouldn't complain because there are a thousand other people who would kill to be in their shoes right now. I understand that. I also don't want to be paying off my debt from this incredible honor for the next 30 years. No one would want that. Anyone who says they don't mind the debt is naïve or daft.
Please do not misinterpret this rant as me bashing vet schools. The time that I have spent in vet school, has included the happiest and most rewarding years of my life. It has also been the most time-consuming, most stressful, and most exhausting time. Being in a teaching hospital teaches you a million things that you can't learn in a classroom. At the end of the day, you go home completely worn-out, yet feeling accomplished, and knowing that you've learned valuable things. There are also days when everything goes wrong; patients die, clients are rude, patience wears thin, techs get sassy, there's no time for lunch, classmates annoy the bajeezus out of you, ...or all of your calls are for pulling dead calves in the rain and, despite doing everything right, mama cow dies.
The bad days test you. Every good vet learns how to compartmentalize and move on to the next patient. (Or me, I just cry in the ER and scare clinicians every once in a while) It's usually on the bad days, when I'm burnt out, that I look at my intimidating mound of debt and wonder if I've made a terrible mistake, if I should have made a different career choice -- like maybe just marrying rich and doing a lot of yoga and starting a blog about thrifty interior design and gardening my own organic vegetables. Doesn't that sound nice?
In the end though, the good days usually outweigh the bad ones, and that's what gives enough of a push to keep at it. The good days hopefully provide enough blind motivation to overlook the heaps of inevitable debt and exhaustion that comes with being a vet student (and eventual veterinarian).
Monday was a rotten day, but Wednesday was better:
Preach 🙌🏼
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