Learning new things

Everyday I am learning new things (go figure a veterinary student learning new things!). But this week at work, I got the opportunity to learn how to drive the fork lift! I know, sounds kinda crazy and strange, since I know how to drive a car, but the fork lift is nothing like a car. And to make things more complicated, when driving the fork lift, there is usually a big muck cart attached to the back. 

I learned some very important lessons in my 3-4 hours of learning how to operate the fork lift. My co-worker that trained me has been working at the VMTH for many years and has a large breadth of  knowledge to offer me. Sometimes I wish I could just tap her brain and know everything she does, but I have to learn it a little bit at a time from her. 

The most important lesson I learned was that I am my own worst enemy. As I was learning how to back up the cart into a parking space with the fork lift, I would make drastic movements with the steering wheel when I was trying to avoid jack-knifing or going over the parking space lines (which were supposed to represent a barn)...lets just say if it had been a barn, it might not have remained standing after I was done with it. Anyways, until I learned to train my mind to communicate to my hands that I only needed to compensate for the movement of the trailer a little bit, I struggled and became very frustrated. My co-worker sat on her stool with her arms crossed shaking her head. She was like the wise woman that was trying to teach me a great lesson. Finally after seeing me fail to accomplish the task three times in a row because I was making the same mistake, she came over and turned off the fork lift. I told her maybe I'd had enough for the day and we should do fork lift training another day. She smiled at me and said, "well maybe, but do you realize what you are doing?" I shook my head and said, "I'm over-correcting, I'm not that great at this!" She said, "you know what, you are your own worst enemy, I hope you'll be a better vet than you are at learning how to drive a fork lift." That stung a little bit cause I felt like I was REALLY trying. I was so frustrated, but I took a deep breath and said to myself, "I can do this!" My co-worker fired up the fork lift and said, "give it another try, watch your wheels!" she said over her shoulder as she walked back to her perch on the stool. 

Something in my mind clicked, I had been over-doing it entirely...by just looking at where my cart was going, when I finally took a second to look at the wheels on the fork lift, I saw a pattern...I was finally able to park the muck cart without taking down the imaginary barn. I couldn't believe it, why had I sat there beating myself up when I hadn't researched every option?  I think this is a very common occurrence among veterinary students. We get our minds going down one path of diagnosis, but then when that is proven incorrect, we back-pedal as fast as we can to go down another road of diagnosis. However, if we had just considered a broader range of diagnosis in the first place, we might not hit so many dead ends and we will be able to think through each potential diagnosis carefully. 

I never would have thought that learning how to drive a fork lift would teach me such an important lesson. I'm sure it won't be the first time I experience it, since I am so strong minded I will probably forget this very important lesson. But I hope I think about it every once in a while...

 

Being a Veterinary Student-Experience is the word everyone gives their mistakes

Veterinary School can be difficult some days. You feel a lot of pressure to get good grades and do many extracurricular activities as well. 
I have already learned that it is inevitable that you will struggle through some aspect of your learning in veterinary school. Whether it be a class, clinics, communicating with a client or co-worker, you are bound to at some point in time make a mistake. The word "mistake" can be a little bit misleading. As long as it is not a fatal mistake (which at least others will learn from), mistakes can only benefit you in the long run. 

Mistakes obviously, show us what needs improving. Without mistakes, how would we know what we have to work on? 

I believe mistakes are a necessary part of the your ever increasing learning curve in veterinary school. The more experience you seem to have, the less mistakes that seem to occur. If people didn't make mistakes they wouldn't be human. I have made mistakes, but I have learned from them. I may seem perfect on the outside, but I'm not, anyone who thinks they are perfect are not. You can get pretty close (although very few do), but you never are a 100% perfect. I believe part of the imperfection is what builds character and knowledge. Embrace your mistakes, try to limit them, but know that they will only teach you something valuable. If anyone wants me to give them a personal example of a mistake I have made and how I learned even more from it, feel free to contact me:

hamaleo11@gmail.com

It's always helpful to learn from your mistakes because then it makes them worth while. 

Other great "Mistakes" quotes

If 

Tips On Finding a Great Mentor

 

If you are considering a career in Veterinary Medicine it is important to find a mentor at any stage of your program, whether you are a pre-vet (planning on pursing veterinary school), current veterinary student, or recent veterinary school graduate. The veterinary profession is one that relies on continuous learning (i.e. you never stop learning in this career). I know a lot of people learn things on their own, but that's not what the veterinary profession is about either. It is about collaboration of professionals that are working together collectively to solve problems and help animals. Like I have mentioned in previous posts, once you start veterinary school you are part of a professional cohort. 

A lot of pre-vets ask me HOW to get valuable veterinary experiences (which is required for your veterinary school application). I believe that getting valuable experiences starts with finding a great mentor. Having done it myself, I would have to say that finding a mentor is not always easy. It is easier if you have access to local veterinary clinics/practices or research universities/laboratories like UC Davis. 

I have had many mentors in my life, but I will comment on how I found a few of them. My most recent mentor was a professor at UC Davis SVM. I contacted her regarding her research and laboratory interests. I had previously read some of her published papers and her online biography so I knew what I was getting into. I introduced myself as a junior student at UC Davis and told her that I was interested in pursuing a career in veterinary medicine. She was willing to meet and after meeting, allowed me to join a project in her lab. It is important to continue facilitating a working mentor ship. For example, I didn't just disappear in my mentor's lab never to see her again, I routinely met her about once a week or every two weeks and discussed everything with her from my research project, to my pursuit of veterinary school/research, and even horses. Almost 2 years later, I am in veterinary school and I ride one of her horses. We still continue to have a great mentor/mentee relationship. 

Another great mentor I had was a local equine veterinarian who happened to be my horse's vet. After beginning my education at UC Davis I approached him to ask if I could do a ride along with him over the summer and told him of my intent to pursue veterinary school. He said he would be happy to have me along, but as summer approached I had to call him multiple times and email several times to secure a date I could do a ride along. I guess the point I am trying to get across is that you have to be willing to go out on a limb to find your potential mentors, if they show interest in you from the start, but then disappear off the radar for a bit doesn't mean that they don't care about mentoring you. Most veterinarians live very busy lives and it comes down to you just having to be persistent. I ended up getting a job as an ambulatory technician with my new found mentor and am glad I didn't give up trying to contact him!   

If you are interested in reading more about the importance of mentor-ship and how to engage and develop a successful mentor-ship relationship (specifically in vet med), please read this article: http://www.aahanet.org/PublicDocuments/MentoringGuidelines.pdf

http://www.popgive.com/2008/02/big-vs-small-animals.html