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 designed exclusively for veterinary students at AVMA-accredited veterinary schools in their clinical years, typically meaning their 3^rd or 4^th year of vet 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). 

Eligibility requirements:

• Must be a current veterinary student at an AVMA-accredited veterinary school
• Priority scheduling is given to students in their clinical years on official externship blocks for school credit
• Must provide proof of professional liability insurance. SAVMA members qualify for no cost insurance by applying at the following link: SAVMA Member Benefit and Resources | AVMA PLIT

Hospital information:

PETs Referral Center is a thriving 24-hr specialty and emergency hospital that sees over 10,000 emergency cases per year.  We are in the process of doubling our facility footprint to include a CT scanner. Our specialty departments include: Surgery, Ophthalmology, Oncology, Emergency and Critical Care, and Hospice care. 

Our hospital enjoys a great reputation among referring veterinarians and clients alike!  Because we love what we do and are enthusiastic about sharing our passion and knowledge with the next generation, we thoroughly enjoy hosting veterinary student externs, especially those with a strong interest in specialty and emergency medicine.  

We are located in Berkeley, California, the heart of the San Francisco Bay Area. The location supports an amazing quality of life with easy access to both the city of San Francisco and convenient for a getaway to Tahoe and the Sierras! 

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! 

Eligibility requirements:

• Must be a current veterinary student at an AVMA-accredited veterinary school
• Priority scheduling is given to students in their clinical years on official externship blocks for school credit
• Must provide proof of professional liability insurance. SAVMA members qualify for no cost insurance by applying at the following link: SAVMA Member Benefit and Resources | AVMA PLIT

About PETs Referral Center

Overview: We are a proud partner hospital of United Veterinary Care, a veterinarian-led company with a wide variety of hospitals across the US. Among our locations, we have general practices, emergency hospitals, specialty hospitals, mobile practices, and practices limited to surgery & dentistry. Great partner hospitals are joining every month, expanding this network of phenomenal colleagues across the nation. Being part of a larger network brings in excellent opportunities to collaborate, provides a structured mentorship program, and makes our company very competitive as far as salary and benefits packages as well. As a company founded by veterinarians for veterinarians, our leadership has seen the industry suffer when new grads aren’t mentored and that’s something we’ve been spearheading change on since day one. Our mentorship program, "The Whole Vet", is 12 months long and encourages your development as a whole person, not solely as a veterinarian. Come see why we are different!

Connections working at PETs Referral Center