Veterinary 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:

North Port Animal Hospital is a full-service general practice hospital in beautiful Southwest Florida.  North Port, Florida is a charming suburban community that is near Fort Myers, Port Charlotte, and just a quick drive to Sarasota and Tampa.  Make sure to enjoy some beach time during your externship time with us!  Our hospital benefits from a fantastic team dynamic and truly believes that mentorship helps the whole team thrive.  Our medical director first joined the team as a new graduate, also gaining experience at our “sister hospital” Veterinary Emergency Clinic in Port Charlotte, 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 looking to spend your externship in sunny Florida, building your skills and confidence across a wide array of surgical and medical cases, North Port Animal Hospital would be the ideal choice!

Species treated:

Dogs; Cats

Services offered:

Ultrasound; Soft tissue surgery; Dentistry; Wellness/Preventative care; Medical appointments

Full-time doctors:

2

Part-time doctors:

2

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.  Expect to be included in surgical cases, dental procedures, emergencies, sick patient workups, and routine medical appointments.  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.  You will discuss these cases with your supervising veterinarian and have them confirm your exam findings to verify whether are on the right track with your plans before moving forward with the case as a team.  This dynamic creates the ideal environment for you to grow in your confidence and skill with managing both routine and complex cases.  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!