Angell Rotating Internship – Small Animal Medicine and Surgery

Each June, Angell welcomes a select group of veterinarians into its 13-month rotating internship program in Small Animal Medicine and Surgery. This challenging and exciting opportunity emphasizes mentoring and teaching. It provides the new graduate with a general and specialty referral medical practice foundation, building a future of strong clinical skills, critical thinking, ethics, continued learning, and teaching.

Overview of the Angell Internship

Each intern is supported by an advisor and is evaluated regularly on their performance, communication skills, and clinical aptitude. The clinical services at Angell work as a team, so interns must have good group interaction, communication skills, and the ability to handle a heavy caseload. Interns perform minor medical and surgical procedures under staff supervision and are expected to learn all aspects of hospital procedures. They can also assist with major procedures.

Approximately 75% of the internship year is spent with Internal Medicine and Emergency/Critical Care (E/CC) services.

• Overnights are included during this time, and two or three doctors and technical staff are routinely in the building during overnight shifts. Specialists are also involved in many of these cases.
• The critical care service manages admitted cases during the daytime, providing excellent patient care and continuity of client communication.
• A resident or staff clinician supervises most emergency shifts, and staff and residents are readily available on an emergency basis during the overnight hours
• An E/CC resident is in the building 24 hours a day, seven days a week
• A criticalist is in the building seven days a week at least 7:00 am to 5:00 pm
• Daily patient rounds occur on all services, during which all hospitalized patients and some outpatients are discussed

Angell’s program has an excellent record of graduates continuing on to residencies in all veterinary specialties. Since 2019:

• 92 interns applied for advanced training
• 54 interns went into residencies
• 19 interns went into specialty internships
• 71 interns applied for some advanced training (internship or residency)
• 69 interns achieved their goal (internship or residency)

Timeline of an internship

Internships begin with two-and-a-half weeks of orientation, during which there is an overlap period with the graduating class of interns to aid adjustment.

The program

• Three weeks in surgery
• Eight weeks of electives (in-house or external)
• Two weeks of vacation
• One professional development week (with funding to go to a conference)

Continuing education

Opportunities for continuing education for interns include but are not limited to:

• Daily patient rounds
• Daily diagnostic imaging rounds
• Mandatory weekly lecture series designed specifically for the interns

Most of the clinical services have regular didactic sessions during which they may review the current literature, discuss particular topics, and/or review cases in depth. Time permitting, interns are welcome at these sessions.

Weekly lectures

There is a weekly continuing education program for the veterinary staff and area veterinarians. These lectures are presented by the staff, residents, and guest lecturers, and the topics cover a wide range of interests related to veterinary medicine.

• As part of their internship, each intern is required to prepare one lecture, with the assistance of a staff member, which will be presented during this weekly series.

Benefits offered to interns

• The same benefits offered to MSPCA-Angell employees are provided to interns
• Two or more consecutive days off (depending on the shift)
• Interns are allowed to bring their pets and board them during regular work days, free of charge

Requirements to apply

• Interns must be a graduate of a college of veterinary medicine
• Interns should have previously applied through the Veterinary Internship and Residency Matching Program (VIRMP). Details about the application process and deadlines are available at virmp.org.
• Full licensure is required in the state of Massachusetts, CSR, and a DEA license at the start of the internship program
• An in-person or Zoom interview is strongly recommended. Please get in touch with Lisa Mattuchio at lmattuchio@mspca.org to make an appointment

Please note: While Angell can give TN1 vistas, we are unfortunately unable to issue E3 or H1B visas.