Vet reference

[giraffee]

Hi All,
So a few years back I got my equine experience with shadowing a mobile equine vet. I had used this vet for a reference but was unsuccessful at getting accepted that time (this was a few years ago).

I would like to use this vet again (not for writing a reference letter but just putting the experience in the BIF), but since the last time, I had found out that the vet's license had been suspended for a few years and also fined, though part of that issue were some health problems.
But anyways, I just found out that the vet is retired now and obviously not licensed at all anymore.

So if the ad com saw this and were familiar with the case, would they look down on me for having this vet as a reference even though my time shadowing was a few years before all this happened? It's the only equine vet experience I really have so I would like to use it, but if I'm going to get penalized for it then obviously I'd rather not...

Opinions anyone???

[dreizehn]

My thoughts are that he/she would indeed not be a good choice for a reference letter due to what I'm assuming was a breach of professionalism, which works fine with your plans as you said you were not planning to use him/her for a letter this time anyways. However, so long as he/she was a fully licensed vet in good standing at the time when you shadowed (which I'm taking to be a few years prior to the professional issues), I think this would be fine to use just for the experience section of the BIF.

I'm also essentially certain there's no way you personally would be penalized or "look[ed] down on" for having shadowed him/her to gather experience. There wasn't any wrongdoing on your part, and I'm assuming the entirety of what you shadowed for experience was valid vet work (i.e., I'm assuming whatever lead to the disciplinary proceedings was not something that affected or formed a part of your experience itself).

This is also a good situation to keep in mind that the experience sections are essentially used as flags. Now, what they are actually flagging for I'm assuming is merely those who have very little experience, very narrow experience, low quality of experience, or some combination thereof. I honestly couldn't imagine your mere association with this former vet for shadowing purposes would even come into play.

[giraffee]

Thanks so much for the reply!
That helps!
And FYI the situation happened a few years after I stopped shadowing and I had no knowledge of what was going on.