 Introduction to Year 3Required Applied Learning
For 32 weeks, students will be assigned to study and work in 16 different courses of two weeks each, either in groups of three in primary care settings, or multiples of three in other courses. Students will be required to satisfy pre-determined learning objectives and detailed skills checklists during these courses. Four weeks will be added for assessments and other on campus educational activities. The courses include:
- Introduction to Practice Management
- Small Animal Practice
- Livestock Mixed Practice
- Population Health & Production
- Equine Practice
- Surgery/Shelter Medicine
- Diagnostic Lab & Pathology
- Laboratory Animal & Research
- Zoo Animal & Wildlife
- Veterinary Public Health
- Food & Feed Safety
- USDA Accreditation, Foreign Animal Diseases & International Veterinary Medicine
The purpose of this "Required Applied Learning" portion of the curriculum is to provide 3rd-year students with entry level knowledge and skills in veterinary medicine. They then will be positioned to select an in-depth complement of tracking experiences in Phase III (Year 4) according to their long-term career objectives.
"Applied learning" can be defined to include those educational experiences that provide students the exposure to veterinary medicine in action. This includes the "cage side" as well as the field and the desk. This includes wellness care, primary care and tertiary care, client communication, collegial exchange and business savvy. Applied learning includes many "resources:" veterinary teaching hospitals/clinics, primary care clinics, ambulatory care units, specialty private hospitals, governmental offices, field work, and other "Teaching Contract Sites". Each has something to offer to an applied learning setting.
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WesternU-CVM clinical faculty will develop a knowledge-base on how well students are achieving their learning objectives in the cooperating practices. Each student will be expected to provide a summary evaluation of his or her learning experiences at the end of each course. At each practice site one veterinarian will be appointed as a part-time WesternU-CVM clinical and preceptor faculty member. That individual will be responsible for management of the three students learning experiences. The faculty member may share the client/patient contact with other veterinarians in the practice. |
It is expected that each student will spend on the average one-half of each course participating in patient care with a veterinarian. The other half of the course will be spent reviewing medical records, participating in follow-up care of patients, participating in follow-up contact with clients (where approved by the clinical site coordinator), and studying biomedical information to meet the learning objectives of that course site. Students will be expected to maintain case logs and transmit these electronically at the end of the course to the office of the Phase II Director. Students are assigned in groups of three in order to continue the sharing of learning experiences developed in Phase I of the curriculum.
Full-time faculty of the College will work with the adjunct clinical faculty member at each site to develop and refine learning objectives, psychomotor skills and behavioral objectives that veterinarians in the practice may use to evaluate student performance. Student will have access to appropriate learning materials at the site and will use their laptop computers to access web-based information to master the learning objectives, psychomotor skills and behaviors during the two weeks spent at that site.
On-Campus Enrichment
Third-year students will also come back to campus for one week every eight weeks for various "On-campus Enrichment" activities. Examples of such activities include:
- Necropsy rounds: Students will present materials and clinical descriptions of recent pathological materials from various private and public diagnostic laboratories.
Junior student case presentations.
- Faculty/Invited Speaker Seminars: Topics will be issues that are of current/emerging interest. These may be practitioner or student requested. It is envisaged that these would be "Continuing Education"-type presentations(to which all local practitioners would be invited to attend) and could be accomplished by distance learning remote technology.
- Other activities: Faculty consultations, library research, examination preparation, selection of year four rotations, etc.
The goal here being to maintain continuity, supervision, and student-access to faculty during the third year.
WesternU-CVM students will be expected to be proficient scientists to include presentation and scientific writing. To this end, students will be required to identify a problem, gather data, research pertinent issues, create an effective presentation and write a scientific paper. These "Junior Student Presentations" are described below.
Junior Student Presentations
Each student will be required to make an oral presentation with a one page abstract of a case, series of cases, or a herd/flock problem with which they have been involved during Phase I and/or Phase II. The approach to presentation should follow the dictums of "Evidence Based Medicine" defined as "the conscientious, explicit and judicious use of current best evidence in making decisions with regard to either the care of individual animals or a group of animals." For example, the accuracy and precision of diagnostic test, power of prognostic markers and the efficacy and safety of the therapeutic or preventive regimens should be investigated.
Students, in preparing their case presentations, must carry out a thorough literature search and evaluate the strengths of relevant published materials as it may apply to their case(s). Presentations, both oral and written, will be evaluated by faculty using formal criteria, but students will be encouraged to be both critical and analytical in their reports, recognizing that practical circumstances may often preclude the practicing of optimal medical care.
Time Commitments
Scheduled Time:
- Required rotations:
- Contact time: Normally 20-30 hr/wk (includes rounds, outpatients, inpatients, business meetings, and record maintenance)
- Non-contact time: As a group 20 hr/wk (includes library/computer/case research, learning objectives, reading)
- Commuting cost and time is the student responsibility
Self-directed, individual study time:
- Approximately 10-20 hr/week
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