Emergency Mentorship Program

Central Texas Veterinary Specialty and Emergency Hospital (CTVSEH) believes in providing recent and new veterinary graduates, or veterinarians without emergency experience, the opportunity to grow as emergency care veterinarians in a safe and supportive environment. Our established program allows personal growth and strength through collaboration within a family of seasoned emergency care veterinarians, board-certified specialists, and emergency care technicians. The goal of the CTVSEH mentorship program is to provide a structured program to develop emergency veterinary clinicians who are learning clinical, communication, and personal skills to be exceptional Emergency Clinicians in an organization owned and led by veterinarians who practice the highest level of specialty veterinary care.

Role of the mentor:

• Helps each mentee identify their strengths and weaknesses
• Facilitates clinical exposure and growth
• Challenges the mentee without overwhelming them or endangering a patient
• Helps to recognize and make others aware of where the mentees are in their “learning curve” of emergency medicine

Why having a good mentorship program is important?

• It will help those new to the Emergency & Critical Care service become acclimated to the day-to-day routine within the ECCD with less stress and a decreased chance of significant errors.
• The skills taught in veterinary school will be brought together and put to great use when guided by an experienced veterinarian.
• Having several different doctors involved in guiding the mentee will provide a variety of teaching strategies and viewpoints while helping them to be well rounded.

Schedule:

• New graduate doctors have 2-3 months of 100% training yet get paid a full salary.
• The first week is shadowing, learning policies and procedures, PMS, medical records, etc
• After the first week, mentees will see cases but with a mentor guiding and looking through the record, exam, etc.
  • Recommended mentees start with seeing “a straightforward case” and let them go at the pace where they are comfortable in learning the computer, record keeping and the entire process. Realistically they may see 2 or 3 cases a day in the first week or two.
  • Cases will be presented to the mentor in a systematic fashion
    • Signalment, history, presenting problem, clinical findings, plan
    • The mentor will not tell the mentee what to do next rather they will ask “what they think is the next step".