#lizziedoesasks

[lizziedoesvetpath]

hey there, hope youre well!

i just wanted to ask for some advice- Im halfway through vet school, and I love it and am very passionate about it..!

my partner’s family, however, are on a different realm… VERY anti vax, anti science… etc. usually with people like this i try to just avoid the topics, especially if i dont want to argue with them. but the whole family seems to love to push my buttons and try to upset me, undermine me, or show me up in some way. Im running out of ideas about how to politely defend myself, and its stressing me out.

I guess my question is whether you have had a similar situation, with someone forcing you into an “is science/your studies/your job evil and stupid and fake”, and if so, how do you handle these types of conversations?

Thanks for your help!!

Hi there! I'm so sorry to hear that you're having that problem with your partner's family, that sounds really frustrating. Fortunately for me, I've never been in that situation, so I'm passing this on to my wonderful followers - anyone have experience in this and want to share some advice for our lovely vet student questioner here?

[lizziedoesvetpath]

Hello! Long-time listener, first-time caller here. This is a curiosity question about your academic career! (I am a PhD student, I know what it is like to Suffer.) So your residency program is the kind that has you pick up a PhD along the way, right? Is a PhD required to become a board-certified vet path? What happens if someone had a PhD in a relevant field BEFORE they got into vet school - would they have to do one again? This is something I'm trying to find the answer to for human medical residencies as well but the internet is remarkably unhelpful lol.

Hi! Welcome!

So, you're right, I am doing a PhD at the same time as I do residency, but programs like mine are actually the minority. There is no requirement for veterinary pathologists to have a PhD - just a veterinary degree and board certification. I have chosen to do the PhD (and picked the program I'm doing accordingly) because I have an interest in research and academia. The jobs I'm interested in for after residency in either academic institutions or industry research require or at least prefer a PhD, so here I am.

I can't speak with certainty for human medicine, but so far as I'm aware it's the same deal. Med school and residency are essential, the PhD is optional depending on what you want to do. But, if I have any human medical followers who can pitch in on this point, it would be much appreciated! Hope that helps, let me know if you have any more questions I can answer :)

[lizziedoesvetpath]

Hi! I have a question. :) I’m a med student and our professor of anesthesiology recently said that MD specialized in anesthesiology can also specialize in veterinary anesthesiology and do both. I was wondering if you’ve ever heard of that. For context: I’m from a very small country so it might be country specific. Fun fact: we have one professor of anatomy who is actually a vet. I’m wondering if there are any fields where MD and VDM overlap.

I haven't heard of that kind of professional overlap being allowed, but you may be right that it's different between countries. I have heard of human medical professionals helping vets out where we need their expertise - a human neurosurgeon once advised a veterinary surgeon at my vet school to do a brain surgery since we didn't have a veterinary neurologist. And my vet school didn't have its own MRI machine, so we borrowed the one at the local hospital and their radiologists helped with interpretation (partially just because they thought it was cool). And pharmacists can do both, but a veterinarian still needs to prescribe the medication. I'd be inclined to believe your professor where you are, but I don't think that's the case everywhere. Although if any of my followers know differently, let me know!

In terms of your anatomy professor, a lot of the anatomists I know started out in vet med actually! Our training is inherently comparative, so it lends itself well to studying anatomy of all sorts of different species