How veterinary school prepared one veterinarian for emergency medicine

Veterinary school equips students with the clinical knowledge needed to enter practice, but applying that knowledge in emergency settings comes with its own learning curve. In this video, Tripp Oliphant, DVM, discusses how veterinary school prepared him for emergency medicine, the skills he developed after graduation, and what he learned from managing emergency cases early in his career.

Below is the transcript, which has been lightly edited for clarity.

Tripp Oliphant, DVM: Hi, my name is Tripp Oliphant. I'm a small animal veterinarian. I graduated in 2023 and I currently am primarily an urgent care doctor, but I also do emergency medicine. Started in emergency medicine, and now have transitioned, but still love emergency medicine.

dvm360: Thinking back to your time in emergency practice, what aspects of veterinary school prepared you well for the ER, and what were some of the biggest learning curves once you started managing emergency cases independently?

Oliphant: I think the biggest thing that veterinary school prepares you for, I always say, is the diagnostics, and you're in the ivory tower of veterinary school, and you have everything to your access, so the specialty services, and you have your mentors or your professors there that you can talk to, and your colleagues, so I think it prepares you for the differentials and differential diagnoses, but it doesn't necessarily prepare you for being on your own, and if you're on that overnight shift and it's just you and the technician, and so that's where that challenge starts, but I think that it did prepare me for seeing more intense cases, because you have people coming to the veterinary school for things that the normal practitioner may not want to handle, and so that's where my interest started with emergency critical care, as you're seeing those things that are a little bit more critical, and you get to work them up and figure things out a little bit cooler.