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 exclusively for current veterinary students at AVMA-accredited veterinary universities, typically in their 3rd or 4th year of 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). 

Hospital information:

Bonita Veterinary Hospital has been serving the lovely beachside community of Bonita Springs, Florida for over 4 decades.  The secret to our hospital’s success is the wonderful family vibe of our team!  While we are proud to be the first veterinary hospital in Bonita Springs, we also pride ourselves on constantly advancing the care that we offer here.  Two recent veterinary graduates have joined our well-established team in the past year, and this has showcased the amazing dynamic at BVH.  Having highly experienced veterinarians as well as newer veterinarians has created a great opportunity to learn and grow together.  This sharing of knowledge is one of the reasons that our team is excited to welcome vet student externs into Bonita Veterinary Hospital.  If you are looking for an externship opportunity on the beautiful beaches of Southwest Florida, with a team that genuinely enjoys spending time together, and provides an exceptional level of care to both their patients and their clients, Bonita Veterinary Hospital would make an ideal choice!

Hospital video:

Click to watch our hospital video!

Species treated:

Dogs; Cats

Services offered:

Ultrasound; Soft tissue surgery; Dentistry; Wellness/Preventative care; Medical appointments

Full-time doctors:

3

Part-time doctors:

2

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.  Expect to be included in surgical cases, dental procedures, emergencies, sick patient workups, and routine medical appointments.  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.  You will discuss these cases with your supervising veterinarian and have them confirm your exam findings to verify whether are on the right track with your plans before moving forward with the case as a team.  This dynamic creates the ideal environment for you to grow in your confidence and skill with managing both routine and complex cases.  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!