Small Animal Surgical Internship

Chesapeake Veterinary Surgical Specialists is a state of the art, surgical and rehabilitation practice in Annapolis and Hunt Valley, Maryland. Chesapeake Veterinary Surgical Specialists( CVSS) is a practice within the Chesapeake Veterinary Referral Center and shares facilities with other specialty practices including: internal medicine, oncology, ophthalmology, cardiology, neurology, radiology, and stereotach radiation oncology. Each location also has a 24 hour emergency clinic on site. Our staff consists of 8 board certified surgeons, 1 surgeon awaiting boards, 3 certified rehabilitation therapists with DVM degrees, 16 certified technicians as well as 18 non-certified technicians, and 5 administrative support staff. Our practices feature digital radiography, MRI, CT, fluoroscopy, arthroscopy, laparoscopy, thoracoscopy, ForceTriad, THR, and shock wave, underwater treadmill, cold laser, ultrasound, electrical stimulation for rehabilitation. Our practice caseload is 50% orthopedics, 45% soft tissue, and 5% neurologic. CVSS started it’s internship program in 2000 and has been very successful in training surgical interns for the past 23 years and helping them achieve their goal to become a board certified surgeon. The majority of our interns wishing to proceed in residency training have been successful in meeting this goal. CVSS offers 1-2 surgical residency position(s) each year which are filled only from our surgical intern positions. We began our surgical residency program in 2003 and have also had great success with 100% of our residents that complete the program becoming board certified in surgery. We presently admit up to three interns per year, each of which will be considered as a potential resident candidate at CVSS the following year. The goal of the surgical internship at Chesapeake Veterinary Surgical Specialists is to prepare the intern to be a strong candidate for a surgical residency the following year. In order to meet this goal, our interns are challenged to develop strong clinical skills, surgical and medical knowledge to manage our surgical patients, develop adequate tissue handling in surgery, and increase their knowledge base of anatomy and physiology. Our ideal candidate will possess excellent communication skills, enjoy working in a highly interactive team environment, and be committed to providing excellent patient care. He or she must have successfully completed a small animal rotating internship and have a strong desire to advance into a surgical residency. The intern will be expected to participate in didactic rounds held each week, as well as daily patient rounds. All interns will work closely with the surgeons in patient examinations, patient pre-operative and post-operative care, surgical procedures, patient discharge and communications with owners. Interns and residents are on a rotating schedule to assist the boarded surgeons on call on weeknights and on weekends. The interns are required to present a formal presentation and encouraged to pursue a simple project for publication in a referred journal.