By: Kadence Reindel, DHS Senior Student
This year I have been doing work based learning at West Dakota Vet Clinic. West Dakota Vet is a clinic that works with small animals, large animals, and exotic animals. They also do many surgeries that no other veterinary clinic does in Dickinson.
When I get to the clinic I usually clock in and look at the schedule to see where to go for the day. The areas I have been working in are equine, vaccinations, and surgery. I have also been able to learn how to run some of the machines, and how to make packs for surgery. While doing work based learning at West Dakota Vet I have learned many new things. I have learned how to scrub a horse for injections and where the joints are in the legs. Take an x-ray of small animals and large animals. How to prepare an animal for surgery. What precautions to take when a sick animal comes in and how to care for it at the clinic.
My favorite experience so far at the clinic was being able to watch an enucleation surgery. This surgery is where they remove one of the eyes of the animal. It was my favorite because I got to learn many of the vessels in the eye and what would happen if you accidentally punctured one of the vessels in the eye. Dr. Tim, the one that was doing the surgery also walked me through all of the steps that he was taking. To start the surgery he started by evaluating the eye to see where all of the vessels were in the eye so he did not accidentally puncture one of the vessels. At the end of the surgery Dr. Tim went over the anatomy of the eye that he took out.
I feel the work based learning program will help many of the future students. As work based learning provided me with experience in the work field of a veterinarian clinic. It helped me learn that I do want to go into the veterinary field and what to expect when I get into the veterinary field. Therefore, I feel this program will help many other students in learning if they will actually like the field that they are interested in going into.