Dr. Hirsch’s primary interests are in helping to make the curriculum relevant to clinical practice; preparing students to be clinically competent; and helping students to appreciate the importance of interpreting patient symptoms while recognizing client needs in order to formulate treatment options. In addition to tutoring in Block I and 3a, she is the instructor for the 1 credit distribution Small Animal Euthanasia course.
After completing her internship in small animal medicine and surgery, Dr. Hirsch practiced general small animal and exotic animal medicine in Cape Cod, Massachusetts; Gaborone, Botswana; Queens, New York; Fort Worth, Benbrook, and Granbury, Texas; and finally Great Falls, Virginia where she concentrated on cat and dog medicine. Along the way she gained experience in shelter medicine (both during her internship with the MSPCA and in spay and neuter clinics with the Fort Worth SPCA), conservation education, zoo and wildlife medicine (including running a mobile clinical pathology lab in Botswana), and relief practice. In 2018 she began her move back to Ithaca and the CVM, working first as a tutor in Block 1 and then also in Block 3a in 2019. In the spring of 2020, she took over as the instructor for the Small Animal Euthanasia distribution course. She accepted a full-time position with the Department of Biomedical Sciences as a lecturer in 2021. Her goal in teaching is to use her experience as a general practitioner to help ensure the curriculum is relevant to clinical practice, get first year students off to the best possible start, and help all veterinary students understand that they don’t have to know “everything” to be a good veterinarian. Being a “good” (or great) veterinarian means being willing to track down the answers, providing the most optimal care for the individual, and being there for your clients and patients.
