Offsite Electives

This off-site elective provides veterinary students with a comprehensive clinical experience in an adequate-volume small animal general practice setting. Students will participate in day-to-day operations alongside veterinarians and support staff, gaining hands-on exposure to preventative care, diagnostics, and treatment of a diverse caseload.

Responsibilities include assisting with physical examinations, developing diagnostic plans, interpreting laboratory results, and observing or assisting in routine surgical procedures. Students will also gain experience in client communication, including discussing treatment plans, wellness recommendations, and follow-up care.

The elective emphasizes practical skill development, clinical reasoning, and efficient workflow within a team-based environment. Students will be encouraged to take an active role in case discussions and decision-making while working under direct supervision.

Board Certified: Neurology, IM, CC, Surgery, Ortho, Sports Medicine and Rehabilitation, Anesthesiology, Oncology

Emergency

We are a 4 doctor primary care facility. We treat a range of medical and surgical conditions with a heavy weight on dentistry and preventive care. Students will see a wide variety of cases including routine wellness, chronic disease management, and end of life care. Students will see appointments and development treatment plans for a wide variety of causes under the supervision of our veterinarians. Students will have opportunities to both observe and participate in anesthetic procedures. We also hope to help students with an interest in practice ownership see how a privately owned clinic operates. 

The All Pets Offsite Elective Program is designed for 4th-year veterinary students seeking a high-exposure clinical experience in small animal and exotic companion animal practice during the final stage of their veterinary training. Students participating in this elective will work alongside experienced veterinarians and clinical staff in a busy private practice setting, gaining practical exposure to case management, diagnostic reasoning, client communication, and day-to-day clinical workflow.

The elective is intended to help senior veterinary students transition from academic training toward real-world clinical practice. Students will observe and, where appropriate and permitted, participate in physical examinations, diagnostic workups, treatment planning, surgical and anesthetic procedures, dentistry, inpatient management, and outpatient care. The experience may also include exposure to urgent care presentations, preventive medicine, chronic disease management, and species-specific care for exotic pets.

A major emphasis of the elective is the development of practical clinical judgment, efficiency, medical record awareness, and communication skills in a private practice environment. Students will have opportunities to discuss cases directly with attending veterinarians, review diagnostic and treatment decisions, and better understand how medicine is practiced within the operational, financial, and interpersonal realities of a functioning veterinary hospital.

This elective is well suited for students who want meaningful exposure to companion animal general practice, exotic animal medicine, and the pace and expectations of community-based veterinary care. By the end of the experience, students should leave with greater confidence in clinical reasoning, stronger familiarity with private practice workflow, and a clearer understanding of the responsibilities and decision-making demands of early veterinary practice.

This is a hands on immersion in small animal private practice.  Students work to their capacity in all areas of small animal practice.  Students will be exposed to every aspect of working as a veterinarian in a small animal practice.  Students will be supported by a mentor every step of the way and will be given the autonomy to make their own decisions with the safety net of having that mentor standing by.  Students will be deeply involved in everything from physical exam, lab testing, diagnostic discussions, surgery, client communication, team communication, economics and even marketing.

Students will gain a hands on experience in a high volume, multi-doctor rural mixed practice, providing wellness, sick patient, surgical, and emergency medicine both in the clinic and on the farm. 

This elective rotation at Veterinary Specialty Hospital offers fourth-year veterinary students a comprehensive clinical experience in small animal surgery, including soft tissue, orthopedic, and neurological surgery. Because the caseload consists primarily of complex referral cases, students will function largely in an assistant role rather than as primary surgeons, as routine procedures are not a focus of this practice. A significant portion of the surgical caseload involves oncologic surgery, and students will also follow patients requiring chemotherapy planning and monitoring. In addition to surgery, students will be exposed to internal medicine cases, reflecting the multidisciplinary nature of specialty practice. Cardiac workups are performed and submitted to a double board-certified internist and cardiologist for evaluation and treatment recommendations. Diagnostic imaging,  including radiography, ultrasound, and CT is reviewed by an off-site board-certified radiologist.  Students will participate in all aspects of patient care, from initial examination and case planning through pre-operative workup, anesthetic planning, surgical assistance, and post-operative management. Under the mentorship of a Diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Surgeons, this rotation will challenge students to think critically, communicate professionally within a specialty hospital team, develop surgical confidence, and embrace the ethical responsibilities of veterinary practice.

CLINICAL ACTIVITIES:

• Major learning objectives of the externship
  • Receive practical, real-world clinical experience from a large, emergency & specialty referral hospital and VetCOT Trauma Center
  • Gain insight into the career paths of various specialties
  • Refining critical thinking and problem-solving skills by performing patient assessments, assisting with procedures, learning medical protocols, and practicing clinical decision-making
• Expected hours for daily activities (i.e. discussion/rounds, observation, online learning, and/or clinical experience)
  • didactic lectures- one hour daily
  • Patient review/discussion rounds- one hour daily
  • Clinical experience- 8 to 10 hours daily
• Day-by-day schedule
  • Morning didactics from 7am-8am, Grand Rounds 8am-9am, with department specialist until end of day. Internal Medicine is 7am-6pm M-F.  Appointments are seen in the morning and procedures and discharges are done in the afternoon (every day).  We have six total IM doctors and the externs time might be split among all of them, depending on extern's interest and the daily caseload. However, most externs in IM stay with Dr. Noonan for the bulk of their time.
• Volume/type of caseload
  • Hospital-wide, we see a daily average of 124 outpatients, 20 inpatients, 16 surgeries, and 41 emergencies. We are a small animal practice. Dogs and cats only.
• Activities:
  • Students are expected to listen to phone or exam room conversations with owners.
  • We encourage students to familiarize themselves with cases and practice formulating differentials, diagnostic, and therapeutic plans for patients.
  • Accompany the internist to do initial physical exams and (typically) repeat them. Once the patient visit has started, the student may be asked to help with the following tasks:
    • Record history in the medical record.
    • RDVM medical record review, if relevant – transcribe pertinent findings into the medical record if appropriate.
    • Write a physical exam/take exam notes for the doctor – this may or may not go in the medical record, depending on the case and the doctor. Even if the internist would prefer to enter his/her own exam in the record, the student should take the opportunity to write exam notes for every patient seen during the shift.
    • Formulate a problem list with differentials and be prepared to discuss this with the internist.
    • Formulate a plan and be prepared to discuss with the internist.
    • Formulate a discharge plan and be prepared to discuss with the internist.
    • Help the doctors and technicians with patient work-up – this may include helping with venipuncture, obtaining radiographs, point-of-care ultrasound, obtaining/delivering medication, etc.
    • Assist with internal medicine procedures, such as endoscopies, bronchoscopies, FNAs, bone marrow aspirates, trach./broch. washes, CSF collection, feeding tube placement, ballooning, joint taps, etc...
    • Accompany the patient to its various diagnostic or therapeutic destinations – ex. ultrasound, CT, surgery.
    • Assist the technicians with patient treatments and care, set up and breakdown of procedures, and end of day clean up.
  • What to do with downtime:
    • Read about the underlying condition of the patients.
    • Research answers to questions asked during interactions with the primary doctor.
    • Ask the technicians if you can do anything to help.
    • Ask to see cases or watch procedures on patients being seen by other doctors or follow an internal medicine patient who has been transferred to a different doctor/department.
• Case Examples in Internal Medicine:
  • Endocrine disorders- such as complicated diabetics, addison's disease, cuching's disease, pancreatitis
  • Gastrointestinal diseases- such as esophageal strictures, megaesophagus, esophageal dysmobility, GI and esophageal foreign bodies, IBD, PLE, perianal fistulas
  • Hepatic disorders- such as potosystemic shunts, microvascular dysplasia, hepatic lipidosis, cirrhosis, cholangiohepatitis, gall bladder disease
  • Immune-mediated diseases- such as IMHA, IMTP, evan's syndrome, immune-mediated polyarthritis
  • Infectious diseases- such as leptospirosis, FIP, blastomycosis, babesiosis, cryptococcosis

SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES:

• We have daily didactic rounds/lectures for our interns, residents, and externs from 7am to 8am. They include:
  • Journal Clubs- ECC, Sx, and IM
  • Didactics/Lectures- ECC, radiology, neurology, rehab, integrative med, cardiology, social work/client communication, internal medicine, anesthesia, surgery, ortho rounds, ECG rounds, oncology, and radiation therapy
• Intern/Resident Presentations are monthly 

Bringing into exam rooms for appointments to interact with clients and patients. 

Performing treatments (blood draws, cystocentesis, injections, etc.). 

Surgical scrub-in/assistance.

Case reviews. 

Shadowing and assisting the doctor and staff in general small animal integrative holistic practice appointments and surgical procedures.  Improving communication skills with clients by discussing treatment plans, differentials, client concerns and cost of treatment.  Potentially counseling clients through quality of life assessment and end of life decisions.