Virtual Laboratory for mentorship and in-clinic specialty care
Understand how the Zoetis Virtual Laboratory board-certified specialists help veterinarians teach students, mentor new graduates, and offer continuity of care
Sponsored by Zoetis
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA
Yeah, think about that. Think of all the learning that is happening from all these great cases. I also think of, you know, it's inspiring and educating new graduates too. And I understand I know, you're very big into mentorship as well. What is that experience like when you're having these students that are coming through your practice and teaching them and coaching them along the way?
Carl Clary, DVM
They're blown away. They're like, wow, because at school, they're not taught that this is out there yet. You know, another thing I like about it is...I'm not doing this. I've got a staff member that's setting it all up. It's not like me doing it. I'm like, I need this. It's easy to do. It's convenient for them to do. And they just give me results, and saying I need a specialist to talk to you tomorrow; set me up a time. The office manager gets it done. I'm not on the phone. I'm not in email doing it. I'm seeing rooms. I grew up with a veterinarian. He practiced 50 years. He had a microscope in his brain; that was it. He would be blown away by the stuff we can do, you know, just blown away. It's all about providing better service for that pet, making those owners given the options of what...it's quick, it's fast, and it's so accurate. It's just been blowing me away. And like my young students, when they come in, they're like, this is cool, you know, because they feel like they're still in vet school, though they still have access to those people. They're very intelligent people, the Dr. Hanns of the world.
Shelli Wolfe, DVM, MBA
A turn that I've seen that Dr. Clary and I've seen in our 18 years, together now is that new graduates come out. And if you don't mentor them into areas of practice, then they won't enter those areas of practice. And so, they've come out and they don't have access to specialists. And so they're scared to elect to do surgeries, or work in endoscopy, or advanced internal medicine cases or chemotherapy. And so, this has helped us mentor them, but also let them know, they can do this, especially in our in our geographical region where this is what we have to offer. Clients usually aren't going to travel five and a half hours. And so, we serve as a core clinic, as a teaching facility for the Texas Tech, University School of Veterinary Medicine. And so we have new graduates, we also have fourth year veterinary students are will starting in May of 2025, in our practice, you know, 12 months out of the year. And so, the veterinary consultation service and the in-house diagnostics have helped us mentor them and provide them the confidence that they need to practice high quality veterinary medicine.
Lisa Hann, DVM, DACVIM (SAIM)
Beyond that, I mean, it's great that you guys have a situation where you can provide that mentorship, but there are a lot of practices out there where that's not available for new graduates. And so we do get a lot of calls or consultations through our service with new grads that are feeling overwhelmed in practice, because they don't have as much support as they need. So, we can provide that support if they don't have it in clinic. So, you know, I can teach you how to read cultures or interpret culture results and make best choices. I can walk you through the best approach to anemia. So I am providing a teaching experience sometimes to these new graduates and also a little difference with our consultation services there, you can consistently request the same consultant if you're scheduling a consult, and if you've previously consulted on a case that can be flagged and so we can provide follow up for the same case if the veterinarian chooses to send in another request. So that one for mentorship purposes, they can develop a relationship with a consultant that they feel comfortable with. So that can be a level of mentorship moving forward, but also that continuity of care if the veterinarian, the general practitioner needs further help later on in the process of working up a case or if there's a problem with treatment, what do you do instead? So, we can provide that continuity and with a better support system.
Adam Christman, DVM, MBA
I love that like really putting the "yes you can" mentality all together.
