Working In A Veterinary Clinic After As🐈🐕🐇🦔

Introduction

Hey there! I am H and I currently work in a veterinary clinic, where I come home smelling like a bunch of different animals, which (I like to think) gets my dog a little jealous and upset. I really enjoy my job and I hope that my experiences make for better conversational topics at future Chinese New Year gatherings, so hopefully you will enjoy reading this too ☺

Why did I apply for this job when I want to pursue medicine?

Well, simply put, this job was actually a last-ditch attempt on my part to get an attachment and job experience in the healthcare industry to better understand the future that I wanted - medicine. I know that doesn’t really make sense at first glance, and it didn’t to me too when I started. I was really unsuccessful in applying for Patient Service Associate job positions even though I sent out my resume to so many recruiting agencies. I decided to try my luck in a nearby veterinary clinic, which I too would not have discovered if my dog hadn’t been there before. All in all, I would say it was pretty fateful and I am very grateful that things played out this way because it did change my perspectives and I realised how much more I could learn from my job.

A day in my life

I mainly work as a receptionist where I book appointments, register clients, dispense medication according to prescriptions, administrative matters like payments and settlements, admission and discharge for patients scheduled for surgery, occasionally run blood tests or assist with treatments or procedures like ultrasounds or x-ray. The list goes on, but the gist is that I never stop learning, and I am so thankful for the senior nurses who guided me from day one. There is another interesting aspect in my work environment, where are largely only two roles in the clinic – the veterinarian or the nurse. This means there were many tasks that most people don’t think about when you imagine a job scope in healthcare. Take laundry for example. There are even specific instructions on what to soak towels with, how to lint and fold surgical drapes, or even things like where the spare toilet paper is kept.

Memorable experiences

Checking through emails are never boring because pet owners are completely unabashed about sending in pictures of their pets’ diarrhoea or vomiting for assessments. One time, we received an image of dog poo by a concerned owner thinking his dog ate very thick industrial-use rubber bands. We had to break it to the owners that those were actually intestinal worms. Well, no spaghetti for dinner that night.

Sometimes, we receive walk-in emergency cases that cause all the appointment schedule to be completely messed up. A dog with pyometra, a build-up of pus in the uterus, came in at 7pm and needed surgery that night. These long hours and not knowing when you get off work is something that I have got used to, but still get frustrated about. But when you leave work and lock up the clinic, you think about all the patients on the road of recovery, or patients who leave a little less uncomfortable than when they came, with relieved owners, you know that it was every bit worth it – even if you do end up getting ringworm. Or cat-slapped. Or peed on.

A pregnant cat and its fetus!

Charcoal, whose entire teeth had to be extracted due to severe dental disease:(

Challenges that I face

“Your job must be so great; you get to play with cute furry animals all day!” is what most may think of someone working in a veterinary clinic. This is true to some extent – part of what makes my day is being around all these loveable animals (ignore the occasional feral cat and aggressive Japanese spitz). However, the part about my job which sucks is the part where you have to see people let their pets go, where you have to see vets doing all that they can with patients and still have them not improve, where clients sign against medical advice forms because they are unable to afford treatment, or when you have to collect payment from grieving owners who have just lost their pets. This is the part of the job where I struggle with. Because life and death are such a common occurrence in my daily life now that I don’t want to get too emotionally involved with patients. Nowadays, I am not affected eating in a room with a dead hamster awaiting collection from cremation services, or when colleagues casually mention that clients called to inform the passing of their pets. This is the dark part of healthcare which not many realise exist, which scares me because I am still learning how to be able to deal with death and loss without it affecting my compassion.

Key takeaways

I hope that at the end of this article, your only takeaways are not that I am a horrible, cold-hearted person who doesn’t really love animals or that a job at a veterinary clinic is morbid. What my takeaway was not to take anything at face value, to work hard to find your own path and look for your own learning points. Because to me, that is an attitude that one should have in whatever job you decide to do. To all those reading this, thank you for getting this far and good luck!