By Casey Carlson
Staff Writer
Working with a veterinarian has proven just how useful chemistry and biology class can be.
Even just as interns, a lot of medical offices don’t want to hire students due to liability. When a doctor is considering to hire an intern they need to see that, for you, the practice is a passion. Also, it’s a good idea to know a few things before walking into the job. Knowing how to use most of the blood work panel and urinary test machines is a definite appeal booster, especially since some of these machines can be very complex, and include key scientific devices such as a centrifuge or spectrophotometer (a device which measures light)-both are terms you’d pick up in a science class.
A commonly used piece of equipment, the blood analysis machine produces graphs resembling those you would see in chemistry and biology classes. These include peaks and troughs that show if there are more or less white blood cells than normal. Interns also use the infamous testing strips that were used in science classes since middle school to test pH balance; the ones that made you afraid to drink lemonade because it was only a few measures away from battery acid.
People think that some of their classes won’t help them in the workforce.
As a veterinarian intern it is likely that time will be spent working with the many pets brought in. Seeing tumor-like growths on a person’s pet can be scary. Sometimes these growths look much worse than what is this case. One dog came in with a large growth on the back of his head. The doctor thought it was a severe tumor and decided to remove it that day. Upon removing the bulge it was clear that it wasn’t cancerous due to the lack of spreading of the bulge on other parts of the neck. A different dog came in the following week with a bulge on the cheekbone. During surgery it seemed that it could have been caused by an improper injection of shots. However it soon became clear that the bulge was cancerous. Because it was caught early on before it could affect surrounding cells, the dog made it out okay.
In science classes you learn about these deformed cells and how they can grow and take over surrounding cells, but it’s different seeing it in real life rather than just pictures from a textbook. The reality check is just a part of the experience of working with a professional. They can help you grow and educate you on subjects that may not be covered enough in class, but learning the basics beforehand could make the difference between landing that internship or not.