Come join VCA Sacramento Veterinary Referral Center, one of the largest veterinary specialty referral practices in Northern California.  Our specialty services include critical care, internal medicine, surgery, neurology, medical oncology, radiation oncology, cardiology, anesthesiology, radiology, rehabilitation therapy, and a busy emergency service. The hospital features extensive diagnostic, therapeutic and monitoring capabilities, and provides a rich and rewarding environment where patient care is top priority, excellent service is our goal, and we support our team.

To complement knowledge gained through the internship rotations, interns participate in a strong didactic program. We conduct formal case rounds every morning with all the available specialists in our conference room, weekly topic seminars are presented by the senior staff, and every other week, there are either journal club or morbidity/mortality rounds. Each intern is assigned a mentor near the start of their program. Interns present a mandatory intern seminar on a topic of their choosing at the end of the year and have the opportunity to present an additional 30-minute grand rounds presentation. The intern seminar is presented to the other doctors and staff as a PowerPoint lecture presentation followed by a 15-minute Q&A session. During the overnight ER rotation, there is usually a staff doctor on duty, who works in tandem with the intern through the whole shift.

Intern candidates should have strong communication skills, a good knowledge base, an energetic attitude, empathy, compassion, and enthusiasm for helping clients and patients alike. We seek highly motivated individuals capable of handling reasonable work shifts and a strong caseload, as well as maintaining primary case responsibility for cases seen on emergency. When rotating through the specialty services, the intern will help manage cases with direct supervision from a senior staff member.

We are a great training facility that is geared toward helping you grow your skills and knowledge base through strong mentorship (i.e., more direct supervision than the average internship) and a fun environment. It is our job to provide opportunities to learn but it is your job to take those opportunities when they come, not just when convenient. We allow interns to participate in emergency surgeries voluntarily, including primary surgical experience cutting splenectomies, gastrotomies, pyometras, c- sections, and enterotomies. We are looking for a team member who is eager to learn new things, uses humor, provides honest effort, shows enthusiasm, and brings positive energy. 

We have 6 internship positions at SVRC available through the VIRMP match program, which starts in July 2025. We are also offering one 54-week rotating small animal internship that starts in early February 2025.  If you have any interest in speaking with current interns about their experience, please let us know and we are happy to provide contact information. For those students interested in the February start internship, please submit materials by November 1st at 5pm PST, to chris.wong@vca.com. Decisions will be made by December 1, so that students can elect to participate in the VIRMP program if they do not secure the position. Materials to submit include:

-Curriculum Vitae

-GPA and class rank (unofficial transcript is acceptable)

-3 letters of recommendation from clinical faculty

-A letter of intent describing your goals and why you are interested in the internship.

All applicants must be eligible for a license to practice in the United States and California. Graduates of veterinary schools not approved by the AVMA must have completed the ECFVG process or similar, prior to application to the program. We are unable to allow any participants in an internship or residency without a license to practice.  Online interviews may be conducted for qualified candidates.