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ANIMAL EMERGENCY & CRITICAL CARE CENTER

A division of the New England Animal Medical Center

Small animal rotating internship with an emphasis on emergency & critical care internship

ABOUT OUR HOSPITAL....

The Animal Emergency and Critical Care Center is a busy, growing, 24-hour Emergency and Critical Care Hospital. We have an outstanding staff which currently includes 6 staff veterinarians, 1 resident, 8 interns, 37 technicians, and numerous office & kennel workers.   At the present time, the internship program is being directed by Dr. Patricia Walters, ACVECC Diplomate who is also board certified in internal medicine (ACVIM) and supported by 2 staff doctors who are board eligible for ACVECC and 1 ACVECC resident.  The majority of our senior veterinary staff have completed a postgraduate internship programs.  Additionally, we have a number of specialists in house for consultation & teaching purposes including a cardiologist, surgeon, & radiologist.  Our affiliated practices incorporating the New England Animal Medical Center include a daytime general practice of 6 veterinarians and a referral practice (currently offering surgery, internal medicine, cardiology, & radiology).

The nursing staff at the AECCC is well trained, dedicated, and a lot of fun. Approx. 40% of our nursing staff are certified veterinary technicians, and four of our technicians are Veterinary Technician Specialists - AVECCT. Our relationship with surrounding veterinarians is excellent and they refer both emergencies and critical care cases.  Our annual caseload is large enough to see everything in the textbooks, but not so many as to lose track of your goals.

Our hospital is newly renovated and expanded to include an dedicated ER for working on critical emergencies and a huge central ICU. Our hospital facilities include quality radiology, ultrasound, endoscopy, surgical laser, surgical stapling devices, 2 ventilator units, and a defibrillator, as well as end title CO2, pulse oximetry, and blood pressure capability.  We have a complete in-house lab for CBC’S, Vet-X biochemical profiles, coagulation panels, BMBT’s, blood gas analysis, platelet counts, blood typing, and in house microbiology for culture identification and sensitivity testing. We are especially proud of our in house blood bank providing fresh frozen plasma, packed red cells and whole blood transfusions as needed.

The Animal Emergency and Critical Care Center is located in Southern Massachusetts near Boston, Cape Cod, and Providence RI.   If you love a fast paced emergency/critical care atmosphere, and want to prepare yourself for bigger and better things, but would still like a little time for yourself, we welcome you to find out more about our internship program by reading below. For additional information, to schedule a tour or interview, or if you have any specific questions, please call or fax- attention Dr. Patricia Walters or Dr. Val Johnson. Phone 508-580-2515, fax 508-583-4220.  To apply, visit the VIRMP web site at www.virmp

ABOUT THE INTERNSHIP PROGRAM...

Our goal is to make this internship rewarding for both the interns and our staff.  The hours are not insane, so that you will have time to read and digest what you are seeing and being taught.  Unlike most programs, you would actually have some weekends off and the salary for this internship is above average. The schedule is arranged so that you would not be on your own (i.e. without a senior staff veterinarian present) for at least 4-6 months.  We believe you will receive excellent mentoring with weekly intern and hospital staff rounds as well as daily case rounds, and you will see a wide variety of medicine and surgery cases sure to satisfy your curiosity.

 Although the focus of the internship is Emergency & Critical Care Medicine, you will also receive training in surgery, cardiology, radiology and internal medicine.  We guarantee you that your knowledge and skills will grow, that you will have the opportunity to perform a wide variety of procedures and surgeries and that this internship will prepare you for any related residencies or make you more attractive for high quality private practice position. 

• Choose and interpret appropriate blood and urine tests, and fluid and fungal cultures
• Collect and interpret skin scrapes, cytology of FNA, & cytology of collected fluids
• Choose, take, and interpret appropriate radiographs (time will be spend reading films with radiologist)
• Diagnostic ultrasound and endoscopy
• Transtracheal  and endotracheal washes
• ECG, Dinamapp and doppler blood pressure, CVP set up and monitoring
• Diagnostic thoracic, abdominal, joint, & CSF taps
• Blood typing and cross matching
• Tonopen for IOP; ophthalmoscopy (direct and indirect)

• IV & IO/catheter placement, venous & arterial blood sampling
• Urinary catheter placement, unblocking urethral obstructions
• Thoracocentesis; thorocostomy tube placement & management
• Bandaging  & splinting techniques, open / degloving wound management
• Nasal O2 line placement and management
• Nasoespophageal and esophageal tube placement
• Pericardiocentesis, abdominocentesis, arthrocentesis, CSF tap
• FNA of lymph nodes, masses, liver (percutaneous ultrasound guided)
• Basic biopsy and necropsy techniques
• Epidural analgesia and pain management (we have a big lock box!)
• Resuscitation, defibrillation, set up/ maintain ventilation system
• Administer and monitor blood, plasma, and oxyglobin transfusions

Surgical procedure most common at AECCC (which you will learn and then perform):

• Laceration / bite wound repair, abscess drainage and drain placement
• GDV and gastropexy surgery
• Exploratory celiotomy for hemoabdomen / splenectomy
• GI foreign body / exploratory celiotomy
• Cesarean section
• Pyometra
• Body wall / diaphragmatic hernia
• Enucleation / basic ophthalmic surgery
• Wire symphyseal mandibular fractures
• Cystotomy
• Neuter / ovariohysterectomy

**Long bone fractures / pelvic fractures / joint surgery (IM pin and wire fixation, ASIF plating techniques, external skeletal fixation), neurosurgery, and complicated soft tissue procedures will be taught during rotations with our boarded surgeon. 

• Trauma cases including animals hit by cars, attacked by other animals, gun shot wounds, etc
• Diabetes / DKA
• Addisonian crisis
• Congestive heart failure & saddle thrombus
• Blocked cats (and dogs too)
• Pneumonia, asthmatic crisis, other respiratory crisis
• Neurologic disease including seizure patients, vestibular cases, head trauma
• Manage medical dystocia-evaluation, induction, assisting birthing, neonate resuscitation
• Vomiting / diarrhea / gastroenteritis / pancreatitis
• Hemoabdomen- trauma vs ruptured tumor
• Neoplasia- lymphoma, sarcoma etc.
• Parvo viral enteritis
• Immune mediated hemolytic anemia / thrombocytopenia
• Toxin ingestion- antifreeze, rat poison, medications, etc
• Heat stroke / DIC

The schedule will usually rotate weeks between days, swings, and nights.

Also available would be an option to spend  1-2 weeks of approved time for an outside rotation in a specialty practice such as avian / exotic, neurology, etc.

 Proposed paid vacation time will be the standard one week offered to most interns.

 Opportunity for continuing education  (ie outside conference / seminar) will be available - time off to attend will be worked into the schedule so you will not have to take vacation, and costs may be partially reimbursed  based on the conference attended.  Specifics will be further discussed at a later date.

• Daily hospital case rounds at least twice daily
• In depth weekly case rounds with a senior staff member for intensive radiographic tutoring, individual case reviews, and informal discussions of general case management. 
• Weekly hospital rounds including: M & M rounds, journal club- presentation and discussion of current veterinary literature, grand rounds- in depth presentation and discussion of a relative current topic, & invited speakers.