Recent Graduates Assess First Year of Practice Versus Internships

Posted on January 1, 2010

A recurring topic for veterinary students, particularly as they approach their last year of school is whether they should pursue an internship. We are thrilled to provide in this issue of the Veterinary Examiner the latest assessment of how recent grads compare their first year experience based on whether they went directly into practice or into an internship.

The Veterinary Examiner, with collaboration from VetPrep.com, is undergoing an extensive effort to collect survey information from recent veterinary graduates about their first year experience. The goal of this effort is to create an “Internship Headquarters” for students to find additional information about internship programs that is not available anywhere else including specific feedback about each program from their recent interns. Additionally, we are collecting information from graduates that went directly into practice to assess how their first year in practice compared.

As you can imagine, such an undertaking will take time before we are able to compile and present specific data in a manner that students can access and readily utilize. Preliminary analysis of the first wave of surveys that have been returned has allowed us to generate the following interesting data about the differences in what the first year of practice is like for INTERNS compared to those who went directly into practices (referred to subsequently as VETS). We would like to thank all of those who have already completed surveys and we encourage anyone else that has graduated in the last 5 years to participate in this effort by completing our survey at http://www.vetexaminer.com/survey/surveylink.html. The data in this article is a compilation of all responses including those working in small animal, large animal, and other careers.

Not surprisingly, there was a dramatic difference in the reported work schedule between INTERNS and VETS. 86% of VETS reported an average work day of <12 hours/day and 80% had 2 or more full days off while 68% of INTERNS worked >12 hours/day and 80% had less than 2 full days off per week on average. Interestingly though, approximately the same amount (56% and 54%) reported that the amount of time they had to devote to their personal life was adequate relative to what they had expected. This may reflect the notion that INTERNS came into their jobs expecting the higher workload. Therefore, even though they reported working more hours and days, there was a similar sentiment in both groups regarding having sufficient time to devote to their personal lives relative to what they expected.

We asked INTERNS and VETS to select whether certain adjectives described the work environment. Similar percentages (about 60%) of each chose the adjectives, stressful, supportive, and professional. INTERNS were more likely to identify their work atmosphere as collegial but also were more likely to describe it as hectic.

The job responsibilities reported by INTERNS and VETS were quite a bit different. 74% of VETS compared to only 31% of INTERNS reported that they had the opportunity to perform a large number of surgical procedures. When it came to being trained and allowed to use advanced equipment, such as ultrasound, endoscopy, and surgical tools, 60% of VETS felt they had opportunity to do so compared to 51% of INTERNS. As you might expect, 93% of VETS said that they had primary case responsibility for all of their cases. In contrast, only 61% of INTERNS said that they routinely had primary case responsibility for their cases with the exception of emergency.

In general, INTERNS reported that the job and learning opportunities were much better structured than VETS. 81% of INTERNS compared to 47% of VETS felt that there were sufficient structured learning opportunities such as rounds and journal clubs. Considering that INTERNS likely have much higher expectations about this, the actual difference may be even greater. Similarly 78% of INTERNS vs. 48% of VETS felt that their job was well structured.

While VETS reported much higher average salaries than INTERNS, there was a relatively modest difference in the numbers reporting whether their salary was adequate to live on compared to the cost of living in the area with 85% of VETS and 67% of INTERNS reporting that the salary was at least adequate to live on based on the region’s cost of living.

In general, regardless of the choice made about whether or not to pursue an internship, most were happy with their decision. 97% of INTERNS believed that they learned more during their internship year than they would have in their first year of practice. Conversely, 69% of VETS believed that they learned just as much in their first year of practice as they would have if they had done an internship, and only 32% of VETS felt that in retrospect, an internship would have helped them prior to taking their first job. Several survey respondents wrote in that they felt that what they learned would have been different but not necessarily more or less if they had made a different decision about doing an internship, with INTERNS learning more about management of complicated cases, progressive medicine, and procedures while VETS gain more practical knowledge and everyday skills. 94% of INTERNS were happy that they did the internship they chose. 77% of VETS were happy that they chose the practice that they did for their first job.

We look forward to providing additional and more detailed information about these issues and specific internship programs as we gather more data. To help us provide the best information to you about these sorts of statistics as well as specific information about various practices and internships, please encourage anyone that has graduated in the last 5 years to complete this survey at http://www.vetexaminer.com/survey/surveylink.html.