Small Animal Emergency Services
Externship Outline

Primary Purpose:

We at SAES intend to provide a hands-on emergency experience in a comfortable, supportive, and fast-paced learning environment. Students will learn the best ways to utilize our full complement of veterinary technicians and veterinary assistants. Students will interact with a diverse group of clients and a wide variety of medical cases—we average 500 patients a month.

Our DVMs encounter everything from hangnails to critical diaphragmatic hernias to septic ruptures, broken bones, and cardiac arrest. We serve only after-hours clientele seven days a week. Monday through Friday we open at 6 pm and close at 8 am. At 8 am administrative personnel—clinic manager, bookkeeper, head receptionist come in to balance accounts, process medical records, order, and process inventory, debug software, and manage human resources needs and third-party contracts. We can provide a thorough insight as to what it takes to keep a clinic running fully stocked and fully staffed. Friday evening to Monday morning the clinic is open 24 hours a day to tend to medical emergencies.

Small Animal Emergency Services operates with two full-time DVMs, one part-time DVM, and one fill-in DVM. We have 14 veterinary assistants/technicians, and a full rotation of receptionists. The clinic features state-of-the-art equipment, including an in-house IDEXX lab, digital X-ray, therapy laser, and ultrasound. Students will also learn to use Cubex inventory storage and software system and how it integrates with industry-standard billing software.

The DVM support staff (Veterinary Technicians) are adept at ensuring an optimal work and learning environment. They help triage patients, take their vital signs, and gather information and medical history. Our techs are proficient at patient restraint and safety.

Externship Responsibilities:

Students will be under the tutelage of DVMs Ann Turner and Tim Staudt. Dr. Turner received her Associates of Science at Northwest college in Powell, Wyoming, and her and Bachelor of Science in Molecular Biology at the University of Wyoming. She earned her DVM from Colorado State University in 1996.

Dr. Staudt attended Edinboro University of Pennsylvania where he received his Bachelors of Science in Biology-Pre-Veterinary Medicine with minors in Mathematics and Chemistry. He graduated from NC State University College of Veterinary Medicine May 2001.

Students are expected to work five shifts per week. This includes one-weekend day shift and one-weekend evening shift. Initially, Dr. Ann Turner and Dr. Tim Staudt want students to learn how to rapidly differentiate between patients who are genuinely critical versus those who appear in a visually severe condition.  A weekday shift requires students to be at the clinic by 6 pm. The shift ends at 8 am. Students can take breaks as needed. The clinic has a full-service kitchen and an apartment. DVMs regularly order food for staff.  Students are be expected to work one-weekend evening shift (6 pm to 12 am), and one weekend day shift (8 am to 2 pm), but not concurrently. Students will work only one weekend day or evening per week. Weekend shifts provide opportunities to see unusual traumatic cases.

SAES will register all interns with the North Carolina Veterinary Board. In North Carolina, students can perform surgical procedures under the direct supervision of a DVM.  A student, under the supervision of a veterinarian, may perform such duties as are required in the physical care of animals and in carrying out medical orders as prescribed by the veterinarian, requiring an understanding of animal science but not requiring the professional services as outlined in G.S. 90-181(6)a. Also, a student may assist veterinarians in diagnosis, laboratory analysis, anesthesia, and surgical procedures. Neither a veterinary technician nor a student may perform any act producing an irreversible change in the animal.

Veterinary student preceptees, in addition to all of the services permitted to veterinary technicians and veterinary student interns, may, upon the direction of the employing veterinarian, make ambulatory calls and hospital and clinic diagnoses, prescriptions, and treatments. Students will assist techs withdrawing blood from patients and using the lab to do blood panels, urinalysis, cytology, and fecal examination. Our Techs maintain the cleanliness and calibration of IDEXX lab machinery. They also manage our emergency blood supply via a cycle of donation. Students will assist techs with IVC placement and running fluids, reconstituting IV medications, and operating an infusion pump. They will administer oral, IV, IM, SQ, and topical medications. Techs clip and clean wounds, take radiographs and can operate the therapy laser. Techs are essential to surgery. We demand ours be proficient in surgery set-up and in sterilizing equipment They must be able to operate the anesthesia machine, the EKG, and Techs must be able to chart accurately.

Students will assist DVMS Ann Turner and Tim Staudt with surgery, and they will have opportunities to perform procedures under Doctor Turner and Doctor Staudt’s direction.

Site Information:

Moore County has hosted seven U.S. Open Golf Championships. It is home to almost 40 golf courses, 23 of which are rated four stars or better by Golf Digest’s “Best Places to Play.” Moore County is home also to a thriving equine culture, gourmet restaurants, vibrant nightlife, and a wide variety of residential communities that are golf, lake, or equine-themed.

Southern Pines has been listed as one of the 50 best small towns in America and is where we will house students during their two-week tenure with us. We will also cover them with a $500.00 stipend for random expenses.

Both Head DVM Ann Turner, and Practice Manager, Alan J. Rose will create opportunities for students to explore the area and its resources.

How to Request an Externship Opportunity:

Students interested in SAES should email a letter of inquiry to Practice Manager, Alan J. Rose. In the letter, students should detail what drew them to veterinary medicine and why they are interested in emergency work. They should also tell us something about their outside interests and hobbies.

Students should specify a range of possible dates to complete the externship program. If the requested time frame(s) match an available opening in the program, the clinic manager will contact the student, asking for a letter of intent that states why he or she wants to complete an externship under Doctors Turner and Staudt. In addition, the student should submit a short resume, and a list of two faculty members whom SAES can contact as a reference.
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Doctor Turner will then make approval or denial within five working days of receiving the requested materials.

Alan J. Rose
Practice Manager
alanjrose003@gmail.com
Small Animal Emergency Services
5091 US HWY 1 North, Vass, NC 28394
Phone: 910-246-0405 Fax: 910-246-0408