Career Center

Overview:

United Veterinary Care is delighted to host veterinary students for externships!  This valuable clinical experience will let you take what you’ve learned in the classroom and put it to the test in an animal hospital of your choice.  Our hands-on externships are exclusively for current veterinary students at AVMA-accredited veterinary universities, typically in their 3rd or 4th year of school. Since every student has different interests, we are excited to offer these programs at a wide variety of our amazing partner hospitals.  We know that travel and lodging expenses for externships can often be cost-prohibitive on a student’s budget.  To make our externships as accessible as possible, we offer stipends to externs to help offset these costs (unless prohibited by the veterinary school you are attending). 

Hospital information:

Veterinary Emergency Clinic is situated near the coast in breathtaking Port Charlotte, Florida.  This lovely suburban community is near Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Venice, and just a quick drive to Naples, Sarasota, and Tampa.  Make sure to enjoy some beach days during your externship time with us!  We are one of the only emergency hospitals in the area and as such, treat a wide variety of medical and surgical cases when the daytime hospitals are closed.  VEC maintains a great relationship with the local referring veterinarians, never forgetting that they are our clients as well!  Our medical director first joined the team as a new graduate, also gaining experience at our “sister hospital” North Port Animal Hospital, becoming a great medical leader.  Things have come full circle, as she now has welcomed a new graduate to join her team.  If you are wanting to preview what life is like as an emergency vet, gain confidence in emergency cases and procedures, and really put your knowledge to the test in a fast paced environment, an externship at VEC would be ideal!

Species treated:

Dogs; Cats

Services offered:

Ultrasound; Soft tissue surgery; Emergency care

Full-time doctors:

4

Part-time doctors:

5

What to expect from your externship:

We want to hear from you about your professional goals for your externship experience!  Please indicate your top priorities in your application, so we can tailor the experience to meet your needs.

During your externship, you can expect to actively participate in cases and further your development towards becoming a veterinarian.  Throughout your time with us, you will always be supervised by an experienced veterinarian and skilled support staff.  This team will serve as your mentors for your externship experience.  If there are certain technical skills you are looking to improve on, let us know so we can place emphasis on these areas!  We encourage active participation from externs, introduce them to our clients, and truly make them part of our team.  Listening to the patient history, conducting a preliminary exam, and formulating a plan for diagnostics and treatment are a great way to put your education to the test and help prepare you for the real-world of veterinary medicine.  We encourage externs to select one case per week to further research and engage the veterinarians in further case discussion with this additional information.  These case discussions help our teams learn and grow together; further emphasizing that mentorship is a two-way street. 

We truly enjoy hosting externs and having new graduates join our teams since with new team members always comes new shared knowledge!