| Associate position and the honest truth... Someone posted that the want ads all only mention the positive, so I figured I ‘d talk about the other half as well... This is a 50/50 Eq/SA position in a semi rural area with 7 other Drs - some full time, some part time.. You will have to see emergencies and be on call. It sucks, and we know. However, we still believe in the oath we took to prevent animal suffering and serve our patients . We share ER calls with 2 other practices, so it is limited, but it is still there . It still sucks. We know. Our staff is great - 6 RVT’s including a large animal tech and some fabulous assistants. There are days when half of them are sick, and we still have a fully scheduled day. We deal with it as a team. And we are a team - there is no drama or toxic employees. They are a super talented , smart , and funny group of people who have your back. The senior doctors are old ( like they graduated in the 80’s). But they are board certified in internal medicine, therio and equine practice. They have a lot of experience . Best yet, they all still love veterinary medicine and can’t imagine life without it. That passion is contagious, I hope. Mentorship? yes - as much as you need. Never done SA? That's ok - we have mentored a lot of equine people and even converted some of them to the dark side. We are good at it. If you can deal with horses, the SA stuff is easy. Really . We have a written structured mentorship program, and we follow it. We have grand rounds. We set time aside to learn stuff. But it is a 2 way street - we expect you to work as hard at is as we do. That means asking questions, coming up with plans, meeting with us and taking initiative to develop yourself as a doctor. The area is cold in winter and hot in summer. It is 1.5 hours from Baltimore ( if you want to go there) and Washington DC and 1.5 hours from the beach. Traffic is bad in beach season, otherwise it is a pretty good place. Lots of water sports, sailing, riding, blah blah. Suffice it to say, you can do a lot of stuff here except for all the winter sports.... Hours ? We schedule a 37 hour week. . Sometimes , you have to stay late. We try not to....We have evening and weekend hours, including Sundays. We rotate that and do shifts during the week. Sometimes you have to do the early shift or the late shift. Maybe you only want the early or late shift? We can be flexible, but we all have to take some. Fair is fair. Have other ideas ? We will try to work things out. The clients are clients. There are some jerks, but overwhelmingly , they still trust and like us and follow what we recommend. A few dont pay, and we send them to collections. If you really feel sorry for them, we have charity money set aside for you to help them. After 34 years, I still like most of them.... You have to be comfortable with a backyard/pleasure horse population and we dont currently ( and I cant see in the future) do shock wave, gastroscopy, stem cells, or any of that fun stuff. You see a lot of laminitis , Cushings, and routine health care. It can be pretty low key. However, the client aren’t the demanding high maintenance suing type either. Do you want to develop something else ? We will help you out... What do we wish you have an interest in? We do a lot of repro -both equine and canine. Want to do semen freezing or TCIs ? You can. How about SA surgery ? Do you want to cut and cure all day? Maybe you are a super doc in the exam room - thats great too.. We cant match the salaries you’re offered at corporate. Sorry, this is a semi rural area. On the plus side, we dont practice corporate medicine either. We pay prosal, offer the laundry list of benefits and are trying something new with a student loan pay back program. Basically, if you stay with us, we will pay up to 10,000 towards your loan. I hope it helps. As a new grad, your base will be less , but if you turn out to be a superstar, your pay will match. If you have been out longer and can do more stuff, we will start you higher. Interested in ownership ? We are too ( well, in you having some ). Corporate buyers are not what we envision for this practice. You absolutely have to have a sense of humor ( obvious, huh?) and adherence to our core values of integrity , respect , and compassion. We have no interest in a**holes , even if you can spay a dog in 10 minutes. Life is too short for us or our team to deal with that kind of crap. We love what we do, like the people we work with and want to keep it that way. So that’s the truth.. Really. drcallahan@vmceaston.com www.vmceaston.com | 
