Veterinary Internship

The Facility:
Ocean State Veterinary Specialists is a 24-hour hospital providing emergency and specialty referral services to the state of Rhode Island as well as parts of Massachusetts and Connecticut. The hospital is approximately 26,000 sf, including three surgery suites with advanced equipment for both soft tissue and orthopedic surgeries including laparoscopy equipment. Endoscopy equipment includes a digital video monitor. Radiology equipment includes digital radiography and high resolution ultrasound machine, a CT scanner, fluoroscopy and full time, on-site MRI. The fully-equipped intensive care unit includes oxygen cages, mechanical ventilator, telemetric electrocardiography, defibrillator, pulse oximetry, and blood pressure monitors. In house diagnostic equipment includes blood gas and electrolyte monitors, and CBC, chemistry and coagulation analyzers. There is a full time clinical pathologist also on site. Advanced therapeutics are available including transfusion products, parenteral nutrition, peritoneal dialysis, and radioactive iodine therapy.

The Staff:
The staff includes specialists in internal medicine, surgery, radiology, oncology, neurology, emergency/critical care, cardiology, ophthalmology, avian/exotic medicine and clinical pathology. There are two criticalists, and over twenty full-time, internship trained and experienced emergency doctors, who are a vital source of support for the interns, especially on nights and weekends. There are 2-3 residents in Emergency/Critical Care and two Surgery residents.
The support staff includes highly trained technicians, many of whom are certified. Several technicians are currently specialty certified. The ICU technicians are capable of placing central catheters, performing advanced patient monitoring, trouble-shooting ventilator cases, etc.

The Internship:
The 12 1/2 month internship has an emphasis on emergency medicine and critical care. The intern will spend approximately 60% of his/her time on emergency or inpatient shifts. During these shifts the intern will have access to specialists and experienced emergency doctors for consultation. Extensive daily case rounds ensure that the intern has the opportunity to learn from each case he/she sees as well as cases being managed by other doctors. The remaining time includes rotations in surgery and internal medicine, and elective rotations which the intern can choose (to include any or all of the other specialties). In addition to case rounds, there are weekly didactic rounds for the interns presented by the various specialists. The intern is expected to participate in the teaching of technicians and visiting student externs. The internship is designed to expose the participant to the various specialties, allowing the intern to develop a special interest to pursue in a residency, but also providing a broad education in high quality medicine and surgery which will be valuable in any type of future practice. Previous interns have routinely expressed that they felt very well prepared for their jobs or residencies because of their OSVS experience. OSVS has a strong reputation for preparing excellent doctors, and interns are highly sought after for employment after internship. The OSVS internship is one of only a handful in the east that is certified as a quality educational program by the American Animal Hospital Association.