PARK RIVER, ND — As North Dakota looks for more veterinarians, one of a few clinics in the northeast is helping kids get interested in a veterinary career through job shadowing.
Golden Valley Veterinary Clinic in Park River has been doing job shadowing for a few years, office manager Britt Jacobson said, and has enjoyed getting kids interested in the career.
“We have certainly appreciated having those students,” she said.
Golden Valley Vet conducts the program through a collaboration with the North Valley Career and Technology Center in Grafton, which works to prepare high school students for employment through different programs. The center has students go through an assessment to see their interests and help pair them with a business nearby. The students make a telephone call to the business themselves and have an informal interview. Jacobson said he had a few screening questions he asked the students, but has never turned anyone down.
The job shadowing lasts for four hours, which occurs in the morning for Golden Valley. The team tries to schedule a few regular exams and routine surgeries, like spaying or neutering, to show the kids what a typical day looks like for vets, along with giving a tour of the facility and letting students look at X-rays or through microscopes . While it’s mostly small animals that are scheduled to be seen in the morning, there have been several times where large animals came in, such as a Clydesdale horse having a dental visit, or a cow that needed a C-section. Jacobson said the goal is to show the students that being a vet means more than getting to cuddle puppies and kittens.
“We see a lot more animals who are coming in and are sick and fractious and not their best,” she said. “I think it’s eye-opening for them to see.”
She also discusses confidentiality with the students. While veterinarians don’t have the same level of confidentiality rules as doctors, who operate under HIPAA, Jacobson tells students the importance of standards.
“Whether they’re going into a medical field like human health or veterinary medicine, no one wants their business shared all over town,” she said.
When a job shadow wraps up, the students take a survey and mention some highlights from their visits. For one student, this was being able to give her own dog an examination — the pet had been scheduled for a visit the same morning as her job shadow.
Molly Zahradka, a career pathway coordinator for North Valley who works with businesses like Golden Valley, said one story she remembers well was when she was driving a ninth-grade student to and from her job shadow. The student wanted to be a vet, even though he had never had any pets and didn’t live on a farm, so he had never been inside a veterinary clinic before.
“When I picked her up she was pretty wide-eyed,” Zahradka said. “For her, it reiterated that is what she wants to do. That was pretty interesting to see.”
Jacobson said job shadowing opportunities are a good way to get local students interested in being veterinarians. North Dakota is struggling with hiring vet techs and similar positions, as it’s hard to get people outside of the area to want to live and work there.
Zahradka said even if these students don’t become vets, it’s still a good way for them to get interested in animal sciences in the area, which is something North Valley hopes to do through new agricultural programs.
“The Park River program is not new, but the Grafton and the Drayton and the Minto ones are, so as we expose kids to more animal science careers and job shadows with those two things together, hopefully we can find more kids who are willing to stay in our area and do animal science-related careers, or even if it’s animal boarding or grooming,” she said. “There are lots of options.”
Otto is the region reporter for the Grand Forks Herald.