Am I Too Young to Shadow a Veterinarian?

The short answer is - it depends on you. There is no standard age requirement for shadowing in veterinary hospitals. While some veterinary hospitals have set up an age requirement for shadowing their doctors or a guideline they might follow, many have no requirement at all.

The real question is “Are you ready to shadow a veterinarian?”. Veterinarians want the students they bring into their hospital as guests to be safe and to learn all they can from the experience. Veterinarians aren’t concerned about your age. What they are looking for are students who are responsible and prepared to shadow. If you want to guarantee yourself a shadowing opportunity, show the veterinary team you are ready for the experience.

If you want to guarantee yourself a shadowing opportunity, show the veterinary team you are ready for the experience.

How can you do that? Let’s talk about an example from school. Remember when your History or English teacher assigned a reading assignment and then had a discussion in class the next day? You could always tell the kids who had read the chapter and those that didn’t. The students who had read the chapter were ready for the discussion, they could ask really good questions, and they got so much more from the conversations. The teacher saw this too. They understood who was prepared.

The best way to prove to the veterinary team that you are ready and prepared for a shadowing experience is share your certificate of completion from both the How to Shadow a Veterinarian Course and the Veterinary Shadowing Safety and Hospital Orientation course. When you have these two certificates, hospitals know you are ready for a shadowing experience, regardless of your age.

In the How to Shadow a Veterinarian Course, you’ll get all the information you’ll need to start shadowing. We’ll teach everything you need to know including:

• The different types of veterinarians you can shadow
• How to contact a veterinary hospital
• What clothes to wear on your day of shadowing
• What you’ll be doing on your shadowing day
• And so much more
  

At the end of the course, we’ll give you a certificate to show the veterinary team that you are ready but don’t stop there…

One of the biggest concerns for a veterinarian and their hospital staff is the safety of anyone who shadows in their clinic. In fact, this concern for safety is the number one reason that veterinary clinics create age requirements for students that shadow. If you want to show a clinic that you are responsible and ready for a safe shadowing experience, earn your Certificate of Veterinary Shadowing Safety. Show them you have been trained on safety in a veterinary hospital.

Vet Set Go Academy put together the first and only Shadowing Safety and Hospital Orientation course for aspiring veterinarians. This course takes you through the veterinary hospital and shares all that you might see and what you must do to make your learning experience a safe one. If you successfully complete this course, we’ll give you a Certificate of Shadowing Safety in your name. This certificate will show the veterinary team that you know what is needed to safely shadow the veterinarian.

So, don’t ask yourself “Am I old enough?”. Instead, ask yourself “Am I ready?”. Sign up, get yourself ready, and enjoy your first shadowing experience.