Overview:

United Veterinary Care is delighted to host veterinary students for externships!  This valuable clinical experience will let you take what you’ve learned in the classroom and put it to the test in an animal hospital of your choice.  Our hands-on externships are designed exclusively for veterinary students at AVMA-accredited veterinary schools in their clinical years, typically meaning their 3^rd or 4^th year of vet school.  Since every student has different interests, we are excited to offer these programs at a wide variety of our amazing partner hospitals.  We know that travel and lodging expenses for externships can often be cost-prohibitive on a student’s budget.  To make our externships as accessible as possible, we offer stipends to externs to help offset these costs (unless prohibited by the veterinary school you are attending). 

Eligibility requirements:

• Must be a current veterinary student at an AVMA-accredited veterinary school
• Priority scheduling is given to students in their clinical years on official externship blocks for school credit
• Must provide proof of professional liability insurance. SAVMA members qualify for no cost insurance by applying at the following link: SAVMA Member Benefit and Resources | AVMA PLIT

Hospital Information:

Ocean State Veterinary Specialists is a unique place. The hospital philosophy has always been that if we practice good medicine, and treat our people and our clients well, we will be profitable. Despite having grown to a staff of over 50 doctors, the hospital still has a family feel, and our people know that we care about them. Many of our ER doctors and specialists did their internships here, and either stayed or returned. They love the medicine, and the culture. 

The hospital is a 26,000 sq. ft. facility located in East Greenwich, Rhode Island, with dedicated emergency and specialty areas. OSVS provides referral and emergency services to Rhode Island, eastern Connecticut, and southern Massachusetts, and there is no general practice associated with the hospital. Equipment includes digital radiography, ultrasound, CT, MRI, laparoscopy, fluoroscopy, multiple flexible and rigid endoscopes, mechanical ventilation, telemetry, a complete in-house lab, and state-of-the-art monitoring equipment. The staff includes specialists in internal medicine (6), surgery (4), cardiology, radiology, emergency/critical care (2), neurology (2), oncology, ophthalmology, and avian/exotics, as well as a large group of exceptional emergency clinicians. The support staff is highly trained and enthusiastic about continuing education. There is a well-respected rotating internship, emergency/critical care residency, emergency/surgery internship, and surgery residency. The emergency caseload is high, and the cases challenging, and because of our fee structure, our clients are able to let us do a lot with our patients. 

About Rhode Island:

The Ocean State is so named because of our extensive coastline. It is the smallest state in the nation, yet has a vibrant city with a renowned restaurant and cultural scene, rural farmland, coastal communities, and plenty of areas for hiking, kayaking, and enjoying the outdoors. It takes less than an hour to cross the state – so everything is close by. Boston is just over an hour from Providence, the ski areas of NH and VT are only a few hours away, and New York City is less than 3 hours by car or train.

What to expect from your externship:

We want to hear from you about your professional goals for your externship experience!  Please indicate your top priorities in your application, so we can tailor the experience to meet your needs.

During your externship, you can expect to actively participate in cases and further your development towards becoming a veterinarian.  Throughout your time with us, you will always be supervised by an experienced veterinarian and skilled support staff.  This team will serve as your mentors for your externship experience.  If there are certain technical skills you are looking to improve on, let us know so we can place emphasis on these areas!  We encourage active participation from externs, introduce them to our clients, and truly make them part of our team.  Listening to the patient history, conducting a preliminary exam, and formulating a plan for diagnostics and treatment are a great way to put your education to the test and help prepare you for the real-world of veterinary medicine.  We encourage externs to select one case per week to further research and engage the veterinarians in further case discussion with this additional information.  These case discussions help our teams learn and grow together; further emphasizing that mentorship is a two-way street. 

We truly enjoy hosting externs and having new graduates join our teams since with new team members always comes new shared knowledge! 

About Ocean State Veterinary Specialists

Overview: We are a proud partner hospital of United Veterinary Care, a veterinarian-led company with a wide variety of hospitals across the US. Among our locations, we have general practices, emergency hospitals, specialty hospitals, mobile practices, and practices limited to surgery & dentistry. Great partner hospitals are joining every month, expanding this network of phenomenal colleagues across the nation. Being part of a larger network brings in excellent opportunities to collaborate, provides a structured mentorship program, and makes our company very competitive as far as salary and benefits packages as well. As a company founded by veterinarians for veterinarians, our leadership has seen the industry suffer when new grads aren’t mentored and that’s something we’ve been spearheading change on since day one. Our mentorship program, "The Whole Vet", is 12 months long and encourages your development as a whole person, not solely as a veterinarian. Come see why we are different!

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