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When Claire Johnson (MSW ’23) reports to work at MedVet, an emergency veterinary hospital in Chicago’s Avondale neighborhood, she spends her day supporting not animals, but the humans accompanying them. As a veterinary social worker, she helps pet owners process the uncertainty, anxiety, and grief that come with an emergency visit to an animal hospital.
MedVet, a 24/7 emergency veterinary hospital with locations across the country, has become a regular site for hosting Loyola School of Social Work graduate students.
Johnson started working at MedVet as an intern while earning her Master of Social Work and was hired as a full-time social worker after graduation. As well as working with clients herself, Johnson also supervises the day-to-day work of interns to help them grow and provide the best possible care to their patients.
“It really helps me in training the interns to think what would have been helpful for me to hear when I came in,” Johnson said. “You’re not going to know everything at the beginning, but you’re going to gain confidence as you do this. Just having a sense for when they’re ready to be pushed out of the nest — that’s how they’re going to get that experience and the confidence. It’s awesome to see how much they grow over the internship.”
The hospital’s Director of Social Work Laurie Maxwell estimates about 30 Loyola MSW students have interned at the hospital in the past three years. Interns at MedVet are part of a program designed around the “watch one, do one, teach one” learning method, meaning they’re quickly brought up to speed and able to help clients themselves.
Britt Durian (MSW ’26) started her internship with MedVet this fall and is already seeing clients regularly as part of the social work team — an experience she says has helped her build confidence as a prospective clinician in grief and loss.
“When I started, we had a two-day onboarding process and then we shadowed for a few weeks,” said Durian. “It’s short-term care we offer, but in that time, so much can transpire and you feel the love they have for their pets. I tell people that I sit with that it is a privilege to be with them in the midst of such a heavy situation — to feel that trust that they put in you in just 20 or 30 minutes is really moving.”
Because of the emergency nature of many MedVet visits, social work interns have to be able to jump into unexpected situations on short notice.
“We are a large, 24/7 ER specialty hospital, which is great for interns because we can accommodate evening and weekend hours,” said Maxwell. “But with this short-term crisis intervention model, we can’t really plan when folks are going to come in or what kind of cases we’re going to see that day. So we need to prepare our interns to quickly assess in the moment and when to use the resources available to them or escalate to the team for help.”
Durian said the skills she’s sharpened during her internship will be applicable to many areas of social work, and the short-term nature of her interaction with patients is a great learning experience. When the next cohort of veterinary social work interns joins MedVet in the spring semester, Durian will help teach them what she’s learning now, continuing the cycle of the internship program.
Providing these social services has benefits for both the pet owner and the efficiency of the hospital. When veterinarians refer a grieving client to a social worker, it allows the doctor to move to their next patient, comfortable in the knowledge that the client is with a qualified social worker. Maxwell says an internal survey showed 95% of MedVet employees say having a social worker there to work with pet owners makes their job easier.
“While doctors and veterinarians are highly skilled at what they do, they often don’t have the education or perspective for how to handle the human emotions on the other end of the leash or cat carrier,” Maxwell said. “When we are working with someone in a very heightened emotional state, that means the doctor can get back to their job, and everyone is working at the highest level.”
