pet connection

It is changing of the guard time at Purdue — there is a progression of new faces as the seniors graduate and become doctors, the interns move on and we welcome the new ones and the residents are replaced with a fresh crop.

The senior students have already been gowned, feted and started new jobs — that was last week’s celebration.  This week the new interns are shadowing the old interns, a yearly ritual in which the departing ‘terns try to prep the noobs for what they are up against. You can detect more than a hint of trepidation and fear amongst the incoming brand-new doctors and more than a hint of relief emanating from the now-finished ones.

The internship is an optional 1-year training step that newly (and in rare cases, not-so-newly) doctored doctors can elect to be subjected to. It is often a springboard to a 2-4 year residency program, where specialists are made of them. The pay is often about 1/2 to 1/3 of what they could be making in private practice — a payscale that itself is sadly deficient when compared to the $150k+ debt load that today’s new grad veterinarian carries.

Interns work long, grueling hours and are subject to serious cross-examination at the hands of faculty, staff and even pet-owners. I had a rather cushy internship myself — private practice, mostly self-paced and with minimal to none of the stressors that are heaped upon academic interns.  It is all in the name of promoting a faster-thinking and more capable doctor, but the risk is burn-out or humiliation.  It is a fine line between applying pressure so the newly minted doctors learn to make fast and accurate decisions and breaking someone’s spirit.

There have been welcoming and good-bye parties almost non-stop, and pairs of familiar and unfamiliar faces have been roaming the halls murmuring phrases like here’s ICU, the nurses are cool and can really help you out, just don’t piss them off and this pop machine swallows quarters. Luckily, I have yet to hear That’s Johnson – he’s a little…special but I fear that moment may not be far off

The level of guidance that faculty provide takes a sharp uptick in June as well, as the new interns are sharpening their medical skills at the same time as they are learning the rather Byzantine ropes at a teaching hospital; what forms to use for what, and what forms to fill out before you can fill out the forms you need. There is even a form to fill out to requisition a pencil so you can fill out forms. As I write that, it seems rather fantastical, but I fill it out without a second thought (you can plan ahead and get a whole box of them).

I have met the new interns, and they seem to be a good class. At every institution I have been at that takes interns, this time of year is met with a mix of pride and sadness as those we have taught and become friends with move on to bigger and better things.  The new interns are often sick of hearing you have big shoes to fill after about day 3.

As the year progresses, I will chronicle the arc of learning for these 2-3 week old doctors. We have eight interns at Purdue, and hopefully by the end of the year we will have eight individuals who have transformed into better, more capable doctors.

Wish them luck and godspeed.

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