Small Animal Internship

The Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego - North County is a specialty referral hospital located in inland North County, north of San Diego. We also have a location in north coastal San Diego (Sorrento Valley). The staff is composed of one full-time and two part-time board certified internists, one full-time and two part-time board certified surgeons, two part-time board certified neurologists, one part-time board certified medical oncologist, two part-time board certified radiologists, one part-time board qualified dermatologist, and a part-time board certified anesthesiologist. Additionally we have a part-time staff pharmacist and a double boarded internist/oncologist who reads cytology samples and oversees our laboratory. We have two board-certified emergency critical care specialists at our Sorrento Valley facility who provide training for our program, and we expectto have a full-time criticalist at our facility prior to June 2017. Our laboratory is a full-service lab located adjacent to our location in Sorrento Valley. UC Davis has their Southern California satellite located at our San Diego facility, including a nephrology/urology/hemodialysis service and two cardiologists, one of whom sees cases part time at our North County location. We work closely with the two board-certified internal medicine specialists and the cardiologists who run these programs. A board-certified dentist is on site part time at our Sorrento Valley office. In addition to general rotating interns, we currently have a strong house officer program at both locations, with surgical, oncology, and dermatology interns, and four internal medicine residents, as well as a neurology intern, and twp emergency and critical care residents at our Sorrento Valley facility. Internship-trained emergency clinicians support the interns in their coverage of the emergency service. The Veterinary Specialty Hospital - North County is located in a new state-of-the-art, 11,560 square foot facility. Specialty equipment includes a videoendoscope, bronchoscope, laparoscope, digital radiology unit, on-site CT scanner, digital fluoroscopy unit, ultrasound with color and power doppler capability, Holter monitor, event monitor, temperature- and humidity- controlled oxygen cage, multi-parameter patient monitors, operating microscope, phacoemulsification unit, an in-house extensive laboratory with bedside electrolyte and blood gas capability, biologic safety cabinet, K-laser, and full service 24 hour emergency and critical care service. Each of the two operating rooms is equipped with a multifunction bed-side monitor with capabilities for arterial blood pressure monitoring, pulse oximetry, capnography, and ECG. Additionally, we have on-site MRI, radioactive iodine, nuclear imaging, linear accelerator, electrodiagnostic unit, ventilator, diode laser, and CO2 laser at our nearby Sorrento Valley location. Intern rotations include internal medicine (care of and procedures on hospitalized cases assisting staff internists), surgery (assisting staff surgeons in examinations/procedures, care of inpatient cases), and emergency medicine (day emergency as well as evenings and weekends). Overnight emergency is not routinely scheduled, but a few shifts may occur during the year. There are also in-house elective rotations through neurology (assisting our neurologists in examinations/procedures, surgeries, and care of inpatient cases), medical oncology (examination and care of cancer patients, assisting staff oncologist with treatment plans), dermatology (examination and care of dermatologic patients and client communication), and cardiology (seeing appointments and procedures with UCDavis' cardiologist). There are also opportunities to rotate at our Sorrento Valley location for electives in anesthesia (participating in care of patients undergoing anesthesia), dentistry (seeing appointments and participating in care of dental patients), radiation oncology (examination and care of cancer patients, assisting radiation oncologist with treatment plans), clinical pathology (reading cytology slides, interpretation of laboratory tests such as CBCs, chemistry panels, urinalyses, urine cultures, etc). Interns are on-call during their surgery rotation for emergency surgery/anesthesia coverage. A detailed description of rotations can be provided to you upon request by e-mail.Didactic teaching includea in-house daily service rounds, as well as a formal twice weekly lecture series, monthly grand rounds (presented by interns and attended by all staff doctors), and weekly radiology rounds which are attended live or via videoconference with our Sorrento Valley facility. Cytology rounds are also available. Interns are expected to prepare and give one lecture to technicians at monthly CE meetings, as well as a Grand Rounds presentation. Interns will also be able to attend association-sponsored Continuing Education lectures in San Diego. Veterinary Specialty Hospital of San Diego has had an internship in place since 1995-1996, however this program at our North County facility is new, with the first class starting summer 2016. In the program at VSH North County, interns are primarily located at our North County facility, with opportunity for elective rotations at our Sorrento Valley facility. Interns have one week of vacation, and one week of CE during the year. There is a good benefit package including health, vision and dental insurance.Interns are expected to be highly motivated, committed, energetic individuals who desire to strengthen their education. Strengths of our program include a large amount of one-on-one time with the specialists, intimate class size, and flexible ability to schedule elective time. We are located in the beautiful area of North County San Diego, close to the beach, other recreational areas, and cultural opportunities.