I love helping and teaching veterinary and high school students, passing on knowledge or even just explaining something, and then all of sudden it clicks, and students get what you’re trying to say and get excited about it.
The Many Hats of Vet Tech Amy Mellen
Anesthesiology team member and externship coordinator for Foster Hospital, teacher at Tufts at Tech, and writer
The weekly routine of Amy Mellen runs the gamut. As the coordinator of a new externship program for veterinary technician students, anesthesia and analgesia vet tech, and high school teacher, she serves students and patients at Henry and Lois Foster Hospital for Small Animals (FHSA) and Tufts at Tech Community Veterinary Clinic. Her openness to new ventures led her to this unique role at Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts University.
For 25 years, Mellen’s career has woven through various departments at Cummings School, starting in the intensive care unit at FHSA while earning her bachelor of veterinary science and veterinary technician certification from Becker College. This first clinical experience as a veterinary assistant had her hooked. She also interned in wildlife medicine at a private practice in Hingham, Massachusetts. After graduation, she came on full-time at FHSA, switching over to care for patients in the wards.
Though she had found her calling in veterinary medicine and a home at FHSA, after a few years, the Massachusetts native decided to set out and travel the country. Her adventures led her to California, where she worked for two years in private practices that specialize in exotic species. When she was ready to return to the east coast, she landed at the University of Vermont, conducting research with a cardiologist, testing platelet function and studying arteriosclerosis and medications to treat the condition.
After a few years in research, Mellen circled back to FHSA, this time in the Neurology Department. She embraced the opportunity to work in a different area of veterinary medicine and participate in surgeries for the first time. While prepping patients for the operating room, Mellen worked closely with the anesthesiology team. She admired their camaraderie and focus on teaching and mentoring one another.
After forays into emergency medicine and critical care, general practice, research, and neurology, anesthesiology was it for Mellen. She joined the team and went on to earn her veterinary technician specialty (VTS) certification in anesthesia and analgesia.
Beyond the people, Mellen found the work especially fulfilling. “I always felt anesthesia is a little like art. You come up with your own plan, fine-tune through the surgery or procedure, and then recover the animal, making sure they’re not in pain and that they’re taken care of the entire time. You follow the entire process. I felt it gave you a lot of autonomy.”
Several years ago, Mellen began another new venture—teaching. She taught the Clinical Experience course and anesthesia and surgery labs at her alma mater, Becker College. Teaching, whether in the classroom or on the clinic floor, became integral to her career.
Three years ago, a friend encouraged her to apply for a teaching position at Worcester Technical High School, Cummings School’s partner in running Tufts at Tech. Students at Worcester Tech rotate through Tufts at Tech along with Cummings School students to treat pets from underserved communities. Quite happy at FHSA, Mellen was torn by the decision. In the end, she opted to give it a try.
Mellen taught students rotating through the Veterinary Assistant shop. She created the curriculum for the freshman program, introducing students to the basics of veterinary medicine, from medical terminology to safety, with weekly visits to the school’s farm to treat the mini-horses, goats, alpacas, and chickens. While some of her students planned on a career in veterinary medicine, others were more interested in shops like plumbing or welding. So she developed lesson plans that were sure to catch their attention, often involving games like Jeopardy!, wildlife slideshows, and video showcases of interesting veterinary surgeries.
“It was exciting when the kids were receptive and enjoyed what we were doing. By the end of the year, we had a number of kids who wanted to stay in our shop,” says Mellen.
In the meantime, the FHSA anesthesia team continued to reach out to Mellen. When they offered her a position that tied in both treating patients and teaching students, she was sold.
Mellen rejoined the anesthesia team and took on a new role at FHSA as externship coordinator, launching and overseeing a program for veterinary technician students.
“I like the challenge of getting everything started,” she says.
In just a year and half, she established affiliated agreements with the veterinary technician programs at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, the Mount Ida campus of UMass, and Mount Wachusett Community College. A few students have already come through the program.
Vet tech students rotate through the Anesthesia, Surgery, Internal Medicine, Emergency Medicine and Critical Care, and Radiology Departments at FHSA, working alongside veterinary students, vet techs, and clinicians. When they come through anesthesia, Mellen jumps in to teach too. She’s had positive reviews on the externship program from the students and FHSA departments.
And Mellen is back in the classroom—now teaching juniors in the Veterinary Assistant program at Tufts at Tech, subbing for a teacher on leave. In a dream combination of all the hats she’s so talented at wearing, Mellen divides her time between Tufts at Tech (teaching two days a week) and FHSA (two days on the floor with the anesthesiology team and one coordinating the externship program).
“I love helping and teaching veterinary and high school students, passing on knowledge or even just explaining something, and then all of sudden it clicks, and students get what you’re trying to say and get excited about it,” she says.
Mellen’s life outside of Cummings School keeps her just as busy. Her home is filled with plants, two dogs (Molly, a Pyrenean Mountain Dog, and Flo, a Border Collie-Great Pyrenees mix), and several birds, including a cockatoo, a cockatiel, and three budgies.
Soon to be a published author, Mellen wrote a chapter on anesthesia for patients undergoing laparoscopies and thoracoscopic procedures for the upcoming book Veterinary Technicians Manual for Small Animal Anesthesia and Analgesia.
Why has Cummings School remained such a constant in her life?
“It’s the people,” Mellen says. “I love everybody I work with. It’s a great environment. I love teaching, and I love learning.”