Journal

Journal Requirement

A useful way to keep track of what you learn on your internship is to maintain a journal.

You will write a weekly journal entry, due on Monday after each week you attend your internship. The journal entry should give details of new knowledge and experiences. It should not only be a log of events, but a means for you to analyze what you do and learn. The length and thoroughness of your journal entry is important, and should reflect the amount of time you spent at your internship that week. Thoroughness includes the level of detail in the journal, explanation of terms that are not common knowledge, and your thoughts, opinions and insights. Most organizations and professions have words and terms that are specific to their industry. Keep a record of new words, terms, abbreviations and acronyms you learn each week and include as part of your journal.

The final statement in every journal entry should state the most important thing you learned that week.

Open a blank Document in Google Docs. Entitle the file as your name - journal

(ex: R. Branch - Journal). Share the file with your

Career Development Coordinator so that your journal entries can be reviewed and graded.

JOURNAL EXAMPLE

# of Hours: 5.5 hours

Experience:

This week I observed a dog having surgery. One of the veterinarians gave me a checklist used in preparing the operating room. I helped prepare the room and arrange all the instruments to be used during surgery. I was allowed to monitor the vital signs and record them during the surgery. After the surgery I assisted the vet tech in moving the dog to the recovery area. For the next two hours the dog was monitored closely.

After the surgery I observed the examination of an uncooperative cat. The owner said the cat was constantly scratching his ear and shaking his head. After a struggle, the vet was able to use a swab and get a specimen from the cat’s ear. When the tech looked at the specimen under the microscope I was able to look and saw things moving on the slide. The diagnosis was ear mites. The doctor told the owner to use ear medicine to wash the cat's ears twice per day, which should take car of it within a week.

The most important thing I learned this week is: that I am not as queasy as I thought I would be in surgery. I also realized that human relations skills are very important in veterinary medicine as vets must relate well to owners.

New terms I leaned this week included "post-op" which refers to post operation.

Journal Grading Criteria/Rubric

Each entry is worth 100 points. A missing entry is worth zero (0) points.

Indicating Number of hours at top of page. 5 Points

Thoroughness 55 Points

Final statement 15 Points

Spelling 5 Points

Punctuation 5 Points

Capitalization 5 Points

Use of Slang/Abbreviations 5 Points

Grammer 5 Points